Excerpt from The Far East, Communist China, Oceania Agricultural Situation, 1965

Important to the island's farm economy is the development and introduction of improved varieties and strains of crops and livestock. Mushroom growing, a recent addition, is a notable example of progress. About families are growing mushrooms as a profitable sideline. Banana production is also proving a highly rewarding enterprise, so much so that some farmers are divert ing rice land to banana growing. Production of vegetables and livestock is also being pushed with vigor and success.

Agricultural trade: Farm exports coupled with u.s. Aid have provided an economic springboard for developing Taiwan's industry. Total farm exports amounted to $105 million in 1962 and $188 million in 1963. This constituted 57 percent of the island's total exports. Sugar, though declining in relative importance, was still the leading foreign exchange earner, bringing in $103 million in 1963, about 55 percent of the farm export total. Rice accounted for $18 million. Tea, bananas, citronella oil, canned pineapples, and canned mushrooms all figured prominently in the export picture. The increased earn ings from the mushroom industry have been most dramatic, rising from zero in 1957 to more than $16 million in 1963. Japan is Taiwan's major farm market. Quantities of rice, sugar, bananas, and other items available for shipment in 1965 should be up again. Rice shipments of at least metric tons to Japan were expected.

For a small country, Taiwan is a substantial importer of farm products. Farm imports averaged nearly $87 million in 1960-62 and reached $123 million in 1963. The United States is by far the principal supplier; exports of agri cultural products to Taiwan averaged $67 million annually during 1960-62 and totaled $79 million in 1963. A large part of these shipments million in 1963) has moved under u.s. Aid programs. Raw cotton for the expanding textile industry plus wheat, soybeans, tobacco, and dairy products are the major farm imports. As the Taiwan economy gains strength, cotton imports are being shifted over to loans and will eventually revert to straight commercial purchases. Other products are expected to follow, eventually making Taiwan a dollar market. The products imported are not grown in significant amounts in Taiwan, so despite the good 1964 cr0ps the need for imports will not likely be reduced.

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