The recent cold weather has contributed to a sudden increase in high-quality winter vegetables, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday, adding that people should choose domestic vegetables to support local farmers.
Though vegetable prices have gone up by about a third from last year, Agriculture and Food Agency Secretary-General Hsu Han-ching (許漢卿) said that prices were reasonable when compared with recent increases in agricultural costs such as fertilizers and shipping.
This month’s vegetable prices have shot up a steep 28 percent compared to prices in the same period last year and are now NT$30.5 per kilogram at the Taipei Fruits and Vegetables Market, and average NT$26.1 per kilogram at the Hsiluo Vegetables Wholesale Market, a 19 percent increase from the prices during the same period last year.
“As long as winter vegetables are between NT$15 to NT$25 per kilogram, the price would be considered reasonable,” Hsu said.
“The prices now are of course a bit higher than that, but they are not expected to stay over NT$30 for long. Considering production costs now, it is still reasonable,” he said.
Rebutting some media reports that the supply of winter vegetables was exceeding demand and therefore prices were dropping, Hsu said that according to the COA’s monitor, the market mechanism was healthy.
“The COA at this time will not consider intervening in the market,” he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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