Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/63505

Since 1970, the Taiwan government, in its effort to achieve a stable supply of vegetables and fruits to an urban area, has been trying to promote joint shipping and sales activities by farmers' organizations, such as agricultural cooperative associations, and to provide support to the production and sales teams who assist in such activities. Production and sales teams are joint shipping organizations consisting of members who have received agricultural training. In a traditional distribution system involving vegetables and fruits, the collecting and shipping of products is conducted by dealers who personally purchase products from farmers and supply them to a consumer city. As part of a drive to modernize such a traditional distribution system in the Taipei whole-sale market, farmers' organizations, such as agricultural cooperative associations, were established to carry out joint shipping and sales. Production and sales teams which support such activities as local organizations have been increasing in number. There have been no studies conducted in Japan on production and sales teams. Even in Taiwan, not much is understood of them since such studies are only conducted in a normative or formal way. Furthermore, production and sales teams are in disrepute among farmers' organizations, which could be attributed to the fact that such teams are organized in order to gain a subsidy and they often leave contracts with farmers' organizations unfulfilled. Nevertheless, production and sales teams have already become essential local entities in joint shipping and sales activities. As the Taiwan market is suffering from oversupply and falling prices, and with the emergence of large-scale discount stores and a large user, the distribution system for fruits and vegetables is under-going changes that also affect the very nature of the production and sales team. This paper addresses a new movement observed in production and sales teams which aims to distribute products to new markets based on a fact-finding survey conducted among such teams in Xiluozhen, Yunlin District, the largest production center in Taiwan. First, an overview of joint shipping activities and the direction of the policy regarding production and sales teams is given, followed by a summary of the characteristics of the teams based on organizational statistics. Finally, consideration is given of three examples of the production and sales teams located in Xiluozhen to clarify their new functions.