臺灣香蕉外銷自由化之後的銷日香蕉生產、外銷和日本市場

Development of Taiwan's Banana Industry after Banana Exportation Liberalization and the Japanese Market

本文分析外銷自由化之後的台灣香蕉產業動向和特徵。在關注日本的香蕉市場和香蕉流通系統的同時，以日本大型連鎖食品零售業者 I 公司以及與 I 公司有台灣香蕉通路關係的日本進口業者和台灣外銷業者為事例；探討正在摸索強化對日外銷台灣香蕉的外銷發展及台灣香蕉在日本市場中所占的位置。 在對日外銷香蕉低迷的情況下，台灣政府為了增進對日外銷香蕉的競爭力，做出了香蕉外銷自由化的決策。此外，以生產外銷香蕉為條件，外銷業者向台糖租借土地獲得許可。對日外銷香蕉低迷的原因之一是，在日本市場中台灣香蕉價格高於其他產地的香蕉，其背景是台灣外銷用香蕉的價格是由國內價格主導。隨著日本的香蕉流通系統的變化，日本的香蕉市場以進口業者和零售業者直接進行買賣為主流，不經由反映產地價格的批發市場；因此香蕉價格容易反映買方的要求。在台灣香蕉外銷自由化之後，台灣香蕉在日本市場也出現進口業者直接賣給零售業者的情況； 但是從 2005 年開始在日本市場中擴大販售比台灣香蕉更便宜，在品質上跟台灣香蕉幾乎沒有差別的菲律賓高地栽培香蕉，要做商品差別化將面臨困難。

Taiwan has strived for the enhancement of banana exportation to Japan. In this paper, I will examine 1) how Taiwan's banana export industry to Japan has been characterized since the liberalization and 2) how Taiwan bananas have been evaluated in the Japanese market since the liberalization of banana exportation, while focusing on the case of I company, a large-scale retailer, and two exporters and one importer that deal with the Taiwanese bananas sold by I company. Due to the decrease in the banana exportation to Japan, the Executive Yuan Council of Agriculture permitted civil exporters to enter banana business in 2005 in order to expand banana export to the Japanese market as well as to raise competitiveness. In addition, the Council of Agriculture allowed exporters to rent land from the Taiwan Sugar Corporation under the condition that they produce bananas only for exportation. However, the banana exportation to Japan has not increased. There are a few reasons for this. One of reasons is that the price of Taiwan bananas is higher than that of bananas from countries such as the Philippines. This results from domestic banana prices in Taiwan that are both high and unstable. In addition, in the Japanese banana market, with changes in banana distribution, it is now the mainstream that agribusiness firms or importers in Japan sell bananas directly to retailers after applying ripening processing to bananas by themselves. In other words, distribution channel does not go through wholesale market which reflects the farm prices of Taiwan's production area. Therefore, it is easy that importers or retailers demand low prices. After Taiwan's banana exportation liberalization, some cases appeared of Taiwan banana importers selling bananas directly to retailers. However, since around 2005 when banana exportation was liberalized in Taiwan, Taiwan bananas have faced increasing competition from low-priced bananas cultivated in the highlands of the Philippines in the Japanese market, and it is more difficult to differentiate Taiwan bananas from the competition. To enhance exportation to Japan, the exportation system needs to be reformed.