Get the Most Bang for Your Buck at A.Mart!

A slogan at A.Mart reads: “Get the most bang for your buck at A.Mart!” How does this happen? Actually, it’s not only consumers and retailers that benefit, but the hardworking farmers throughout Taiwan’s agricultural ecosystem and economy as well.

The Taiwan Week Campaign of A.Mart in 2010

Every year during the papaya harvest season, a fruit farmer in Pingtung County feels a mix of excitement and nervousness about the papaya harvest. Most of the time, anxious and sad over how many papayas need to be sold at a decent price so that he can support his family. “We don’t ask for much. As long as people are willing to buy this fruit so that I can raise my child and send him to college, I am satisfied,” he laments. In recent years, A.Mart has cooperated with fruit farmers around Taiwan providing them with a delivery service and helping local farmers so they don’t wind up empty handed. From a consumption point of view, it provides the freshest and healthiest produce while being more environment-friendly due to shorter delivery distances.

“Since retailing is Taiwan’s chief industry, why do we sell more imported produce than local produce?” Tim Chuang, Chief Operating Officer of A.Mart, started asking three years ago. In addition to making money, an enterprise should also consider how to contribute to the local economy. In light of this, A.Mart started to hold a series of activities. For instance, ‘Produce Delivery Service’ first introduced by A.Mart, has become the bridge that connects farmers and consumers, balancing production and marketing as well as commodity prices. Moreover, it follows the principle of carbon emission reduction and guarantees safety and freshness providing a win-win strategy for all. 

By harvesting, fishing, and delivering to each branch on the same day, farmers and fishermen are free from price-cutting of wholesalers, and consumers are able to buy the cheapest freshest produce and fish available. A.Mart has also helped advance the agricultural industry in Taiwan by providing produce from 10 top outstanding farmers recognized by the Council of Agriculture (COA), such as Bio-Security Liquid Feeding (BSLF) pigs, and Cherry Valley ducks which originate from Britain and were once only exported to Japan.

A.Mart is also a leading promoter of traceable agricultural products. Cooperating with the COA in Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, A.Mart held a promotion called ‘Taiwan Week,’ providing top-quality local produce along with traceability machines at its hypermarkets for customers to learn more about fresh, certified produce. This was the first collaboration between a hypermarket and the Taiwanese government. The subsequent ‘One Town, One Product’ activity was held monthly with the chief of each village or town as the spokesperson. 

A.Mart has also become a platform for ‘Love Taiwan.’ To solve the problem of the banana surplus in 2007, A.Mart held the ‘A Million People, a Million Bananas’ activity. By offering each banana at a price of NT$3, eighty tons of bananas (1.2 million bananas) were sold within two days. The good fruit harvest in south-central Taiwan in 2009 resulted in surplus stock. To solve this problem, A.Mart held the ‘Saving Farmers by Buying’ event, during which NT$1 lemons and NT$5 guavas resulted in about 350,000 kilograms of sales, creating NT$5 million income for farmers. Through the direct sale of improved produce at A.Mart, A.Mart’s strategy contributes to the advance of Taiwan’s agricultural technologies. Farmers are better able to gage whether the produce is accepted by consumers and can use the feedback to further improve agricultural technology.

 “We have to be a top enterprise and a contributor to everyone” said Mr. Y. Z. Hsu, the Far Eastern Group’s Founder. ‘Love Taiwan’ is not merely a slogan but an opportunity to show our love for Taiwan by buying its own produce.