The Fair Trade Commission has set up a special tip-off hotline for price rigging and market monopolization of meat, fruit and vegetables following agricultural losses engendered by Typhoon Morakot.
Prices of meat, fruit and vegetables have risen in recent days because of supply shortages, after Morakot triggered flooding and mudslides, causing millions of dollars in agricultural losses.
The commission said it was normal for produce prices to fluctuate upwards in lashed the nation’s production areas.
COURTESY OF CARREFOUR TAIWAN
“Should businesses try to take advantage of this by making a concerted move to determine prices of goods and thereby affect the normal supply of agricultural crops and livestock, however, they will face severe punishment,” the commission said in a statement.
The commission said it had dispatched personnel to monitor trading and to look for any coordinated price-fixing in the marketplace.
The commission has opened the hotline (02) 2351-0022, where people can provide tips on irregularities during office hours, the statement said.
Violators of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法) will face fines of up to NT$25 million (US$759,000), it said.
At 3pm yesterday, agricultural losses from Morakot were estimated at NT$9.01 billion, the Council of Agriculture said on its Web site. Crop losses amounted to NT$3.24 billion, with 27 percent of farmland damaged by the typhoon.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said yesterday the government had no plan at the moment to either cut taxes on agricultural imports or import vegetables from China or other countries, a press statement posted on the council’s Web site said.
The previous day, the council said it would provide frozen vegetables and meat to stabilize supplies ahead of the upcoming Chungyuan Festival (中元節), also known as the “Double Ninth” Ghost Festival, which falls on the 15th of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.
Based on council estimates, there are 7,504 tonnes of frozen vegetables in stock, including 5,518 tonnes of root vegetables, 1,938 tonnes of leaf vegetables and 48 tonnes of others. As for supplies of pork and poultry, the council said it would coordinate with local governments to assist farmers in resuming normal operations soon.
While prices of fruit and vegetables have risen because of limited supply, two major hypermarket operators yesterday announced plans to offer discounts to attract customers for the Chungyuan Festival.
Far Eastern Geant (愛買), the nation’s third-largest hypermarket chain, launched a 26-day Chungyuan Festival promotion, with discounts on meat, fruit and vegetables prices as high as 79 percent off.
Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福), the nation’s largest hypermarket chain operator, said it would offer preferential prices so that the public can prepare food to honor the dead with the traditional Pudu (普渡) ceremonies.
Carrefour’s promotion begins tomorrow and will run through Sept. 3, with prices for cooking oil, instant noodles and beverages even cheaper than last year, the company said.
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