Taiwan farmers found it increasingly difficult to compete against mainland China pork on the Japanese market. Adding insult to injury, smuggled pigs brought hoof-and-mouth to Taiwan in 1996, dealing another heavy blow to Taiwan's livestock industry. The government issued almost NT $ 1 billion in subsidies to 6,667 farmers that agricultural agencies succeeded in encouraging to leave the livestock industry. Taiwan's 14 million pig population was chopped in half almost overnight.
在大陸豬肉逐漸搶佔日本市場後，台灣業者欲振乏力，民國八十五年，隨著走私豬隻而來的口蹄疫，落井下石，重挫畜牧業，農政單位遂適時鼓勵農民離牧，當時辦理離牧者多達六千六百六十七戶，政府發出將近十億台幣的離牧補貼，台灣一千四百萬頭豬隻一下少掉一半。