As global prices of raw materials climb, consumer prices are heading up despite major retailers' efforts to keep price tags unchanged, the Fair Trade Commission said yesterday.
The commission conducted pricing checks in hypermarkets including Carrefour Taiwan and RT-Mart (大潤發) over the past two days to see whether the prices of milk powder, soy beans, flour, cooking oil and instant noodles have surged abnormally as recently reported in local Chinese-language media.
The commission also visited a major beef importer and the Taipei City egg association to check their pricing schemes.
"Due to fierce competition, hypermarkets have promised they willl keep prices stable for fear of losing customers as the two major promotional periods, Dragon Boat Festival and Ghost Festival, are approaching," said Chou Ya-shu (周雅淑), a member of the commission.
Carrefour claimed yesterday it would keep prices stable and called on the public not to panic.
"There is no need to hoard commodities as unlikely to hike prices," Dream Lin (林夢紹), the retailer's public relations manager said.
However, as some leading food suppliers have demanded price increases to reflect their rising costs, Chou said convenience stores and supermarkets might be forced to adjust their prices.
President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), operator of the 7-Eleven franchise, said it has no plans to raise prices except for seasonal hikes on milk, public relations official Amy Luan (欒美雲) said.
Chou stressed that if prices do increase because of rising costs or imbalanced supply and demand, it would be a natural response under the market mechanism.
But the commission will keep an eye on whether suppliers or retailers are engaging in price fixing or bidding up prices on purpose, she said. Such practices can incur fines of up to NT$25 million (US$750,000), according to Article 41 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法).
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