Vegetable prices usually soar in typhoon seasons due to limited production, but two major hypermarket operators have bucked the trend to launch a price war.
RT-Mart (
No shortage
Its other 21 stores would sell water spinach at NT$8 per bunch, she said, adding that supplies were sufficient as the contracts with suppliers had been inked months ago and would not change despite the fact that Tropical Storm Bilis (
Vegetables supplied to its 23 stores nationwide totaled 50 tonnes on Wednesday and doubled to 100 tonnes yesterday, compared with the normal delivery of 20 tonnes, she said.
Carrefour
To compete with its smaller rival, Carrefour Taiwan is also offering special prices for two kinds of leafy vegetables at its Neihu and Dazhi stores.
They will be sold at NT$9 for two bunches until July 25, when the promotion ends, public relations manager Dream Lin (林夢紹) said.
Its remaining 41 stores would also promote vegetables starting at NT$8 per bunch.
Prices for other vegetables and fruits had been increased by between 20 percent and 30 percent, still undercutting the average 50 percent hike in traditional markets, she said.
Lin advised price-sensitive consumers to rather purchase rootstocks, such as carrots and onions, or imported farm produce, such as celery and lettuce, to avoid the short-term price fluctuations.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last