Vendors brace for busy New Year

What will you get up to during the Lunar New Year holidays?

Some people plan to use their vacation time for traveling, while others hope to catch up on sleep while spending time with their families. But retailers of New Year sweets and snacks are counting on the upcoming holiday to usher in prosperity for another year of business.

Lunar New Year will fall on Jan. 22 this year, heralding in the Year of the Monkey.

A vendor on Dihua Street in downtown Taipei said that, although the mood for this year's Lunar New Year has been more muted than in the past, people still enjoy eating and drinking throughout the holidays.

"Most people choose to spend the holiday at home watching television and eating and drinking," said Chen Chun-liang (陳俊良), who sells traditional foodstuffs.

"Sweets are the best-selling snack for the Lunar New Year holidays, followed by salted melon seeds and pistachios, dried squid and meat jerky," he said.

During Lunar New Year, people usually eat food that will bring good luck for the coming year. Pistachios, known as kai xin guo (開心果) in Mandarin, translate as "nuts with joy" (literally "open heart nuts"), while New Year Cake, called nien kao (年糕), is linked to getting promoted in the workplace year after year.

Another vendor said imported chocolates and sweets with delicate festive-looking wrappings were also popular with customers.

"We can hit a sales target of NT$300,000 in one day at peak times," said Chang Chen-wei (張晨偉), a vendor of European sweets and chocolates imported from Italy and Denmark.

Consumers are expected to splurge out on foodstands and stores on Dihua Street one week ahead of Lunar New Year. But when people stroll this street for a variety of delicacies, they should keep their eyes peeled for unwelcome surprises.

"People need to watch out for the place of origin or the freshness of the foodstuffs if the prices are too cheap," Chen said. "Some products that are too cheap may be leftover from last year."

Meat jerky is priced from NT$250 to NT$300 per 600g while salted melon seeds cost from NT$60 to NT$120 per catty depending on the quality.

"Some vendors may falsely sell pork jerky as beef jerky at a higher price, while others may sell you artificially bleached pistachios -- which should actually have a camel color," said Liao Chin-hsiung (廖進雄), who has been taking care of his salted-seeds-and-pistachios business on this street for more than 20 years.

People love to shop for special products in New Year bazaars where numerous delicacies are on offer at bargain prices. But many shoppers are concerned about food safety.

"New Year bazaars like Dihua Street offer customers a great selection of products and the convenience for families to purchase mixed products in smaller quantities," said Sabrina Su (蘇玉娟), a 51-year-old housewife. "However, the sanitation of food sold in such bazaars does worry me."

Local confectionery and snack firms like Hun Ya Foods Co (宏亞食品) and I-Mei Foods Co (義美食品) have projected upcoming sales over the next two weeks to double or triple from what they usually sell.

"In the month approaching Lunar New Year, we are often able to generate sales of up to NT$200 million, triple that of our average," said Johnny Kuo (郭正二), finance manager at Hun Ya, which is famous for its 77 Chocolate-brand snacks and Rivon (禮坊) wedding cake.