I-Mei Foods to purchase 100 tons of banana to help Taiwanese farmers

Netizens came up with interesting ideas for I-Mei on its new banana products

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/06/01
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – As a massive oversupply and a significant dip in prices is causing concern for Taiwanese banana farmers, food giant I-Mei Foods Co. announced it was procuring 100 tons of bananas from local farmers at reasonable prices to ease their burden.

Taiwanese banana growers have been slashing prices amid massive oversupply recently, with top-graded (Grade A) bananas falling to NT$6 per kilogram and lowest-graded (Grade C) to NT$1 per kilogram, according to an agricultural official. To address the concerns of local farmers, I-Mei has decided to purchase 100 tons of top-graded bananas (in box) at a price of NT$16.5 per kilogram, which is far higher than its current market value.

I-Mei announced the procurement initiative on its Facebook fans page on Friday, saying that the one-time purchase of bananas at low prices and then give it away for free is not a long-term realistic solution to tackle the problem. The company said that it’s mulling over more value-added options to create sustainable demand for bananas.

“There should be more possibilities in addition to banana pastry, dried banana, and banana chips,” said the company.     [FULL  STORY]