Taiwanese bananas have become so expensive that they can't be sold anymore. Quite a few Taiwanese citizens found that bananas have become unreasonably expensive. On the first day of 2017, the wholesale price for bananas on the market of Taibei was 86 NTD per kg (or around 20.5 HKD). This is the highest price yet according to data of the Taiwan Agricultural Products Office. As a result, Taiwanese citizens cry out that the bananas 'can't be bought'.
Today, the price for a kg of bananas on the big wholesale market of Taibei was 86 NTD. 21.1 tons of bananas were on the scene. In contrast, on the first day of 2016 27.9 tons of bananas were present on the market for a wholesale price of 56.1 NTD per kg. This means a price increase of no less than 53.4%. And since the data records of the Agricultural Products Office only go back to 1996, the price of 86 NTD is also a record high in the history of the office.
The head of the Agricultural Products Office, Mr. Su Maoxiang, states that typhoons hit Taiwan again and again in September, severely disrupting the banana production bases in the centre and the South of the island. The small quantity has caused an upsurge of the price that will only stabilise in March at the earliest. This is when the Spring season bananas of the Gaobing region will be ready for supply to the market. So if citizens are of a mind to eat fruit, they are advised to eat oranges, tangerines and similar seasonal fruits, followed by the production season of dates and wax apples that will allow for a broader choice of fruits.
Mrs. Huang grumbles that "one bunch costs more than 140 NTD (or 33.4 HKD), you can eat two meals with that. It's that expensive! I really can't buy it." But Mr. Liao expresses that "when the typhoons came in the past, the bananas weren't that expensive either. The government must act on this. The typhoon can't be given all responsibility for the price surge."
