Taiwan ’s agricultural production has slightly increased since Taiwan ’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2002. Although employment in the agricultural sector has declined since then, agricultural labor productivity has increased significantly. The gross value of agricultural production in 2007 was estimated to be NT$382 billion. This is a slight increase of 1.33 percent over 2006 but a considerable one of 8.31 percent over 2001, the year before Taiwan ’s accession to the WTO. Average output value per agricultural producer in 2007 was NT$703,500, 40.7 percent more than in 2001. Overall, the negative impact of market liberalization did not reach the apprehended level; however, an increasing agricultural trade deficit deserves attention.

The agricultural productivity index in 2007 was estimated to be 90.35 with 2001’ s value as 100. That's a decrease of 4.71 percent from the previous year. The sub-index for crop production decreased by 5.31 percent due to poor harvests caused by typhoons damage, and that for forestry by 25.4 percent because of reduced production. The sub-index for fishery decreased by 6.81 percent, because of oil price hikes and depleted resources despite good squid catches. The livestock industry also suffered a fall of 1.97 percent due to feed price increases.

As for agricultural trade, imported agricultural goods were valued at US$10.456 billion in 2007, an increase of 10.9 percent over 2006. Major imports included cereals and lumber, and their secondary products. On the other hand, exported agricultural goods were valued at US$3.433 billion, an increase of 4.07 percent over the previous year because of a big leap in exported flowers and mangoes.

As for the price of agri-products, the wholesale price index increased 8.70 percent from 2006. This could be attributed to frequent incidences of natural disasters that demolished domestic production, as well as price hikes of raw materials. Among different categories, the prices of crop products increased by 13.98 percent, forestry products by 16.09 percent, livestock products by 5.36 percent, and fishery products by a mere 0.65 percent.

As for the agricultural labor force, there were 543,000 persons employed in the agricultural sector in 2007. That's a two-percent decrease from the previous year. It was a cutback of 163,000 persons from 706,000 persons in 2001, the year before Taiwan ’s WTO accession, or an annual reduction of about 27,000 persons. Apart from the retirement of senior producers, free trade, digitalization and Taiwan 's attempt to upgrade its agricultural sector also contributed to this declining trend.