By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterThe Council of Agriculture will subsidize installation of vacuum cooling devices to help prevent vegetable prices from being affected by market closures, council Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said yesterday. The coolers should help farmers’ groups extend the shelf life of their vegetable harvests. Vegetable prices dropped drastically nationwide starting late last month after Taipei’s two fruit and vegetable wholesale markets were closed for 11 days between Feb. 16 and Wednesday last week. The council on Monday last week introduced a series of measures to boost vegetable sales and succeeded in keeping vegetable prices above NT$18 per kilogram when the two markets reopened on Thursday last week after a three-day closure. Local vegetable storage systems have a lot of room for improvement and the council will subsidize the installation of vacuum cooling devices, which are common in Japan’s markets, Chen said.

Source: Taipei Times March 13, 2018 15:56 UTC