Officials at the Taipei Flower Market said yesterday that because flowers are expected to be fairly inexpensive for Valentine’s Day on Sunday, people should celebrate the day with their lover before celebrating the Lunar New Year, which happens to fall on the same day this year.
Thanks to abundant supplies, rose prices will be cheaper than at the same time last year, said Teng Yi-chin (鄧怡菁), a market manager responsible for planning.
She said the wholesale flower market in Neihu (內湖) District had been operating round-the-clock since Tuesday, and encouraged couples to demonstrate their love for each other with flowers.
Council of Agriculture statistics showed that trade at wholesale flower markets around Taiwan reached nearly 700,000 bunches of flowers on Tuesday, marking a growth of 34.66 percent compared with the trading volume for the same period last year.
The average price for all kinds of flowers recorded a drop of 35.04 percent from NT$94.1 per bunch at that time last year to NT$61.2 on Tuesday, the figures showed.
A standard bunch consists of 12 stems.
Meanwhile, the price of a bunch of roses was NT$124.3 on average in market trading, lower than the NT$162.6 on Valentine’s Day last year, a council official said.
Flower rices spike by as much as 30 percent on Valentine’s Day in Taiwan, with the cost of a single rose surging to between NT$100 and NT$250.
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