COA spending too much money on purchasing excess rice: legislators

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/10/29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Council of Agriculture (COA) on Tuesday (October 29) rejected

allegations that it was wasting public money on the purchase and storage of wheat products to help farmers.

The government spent NT$15 billion (US$491 million) a year over the past five years on support systems for wheat products, including NT$10 billion on rice, leading to excessive spending while accumulating large reserves, the United Evening News reported Tuesday.

Legislators have been demanding an explanation by the COA as well as proposals to improve the situation.

The law prescribes that the government keeps 300,000 tons in storage as a safety measure. Similar systems overseas separated the storage of a safe reserve from influencing market prices, COA officials said, adding that problems with the method in Taiwan had led to the current way of helping to prop prices up.    [FULL  STORY]