The average wholesale price for vegetables fell 15 percent yesterday from a day earlier because of a surge in supply after farmers rushed to harvest their crops before the arrival of Typhoon Fanapi, the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corp (TAPMC) said yesterday.
A total of 2,155 tonnes of vegetables were sold at the Taipei City Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market yesterday at an average price of NT$28.6 per kilogram, after 1,769 tonnes were sold on Saturday at an average price of NT$33.5 per kilo, the company reported.
Scared that the approaching typhoon would destroy their crops, farmers apparently harvested what they could on Saturday and drove up supply at the wholesale market, the company said.
The prices of some premium vegetables, however, still exceeded NT$100 per kilo, with sweet peppers at NT$105 per kilo, green beans at NT$130 per kilo, baby corn at NT$100 per kilo, Chinese leeks at NT$107 per kilo, garlic at NT$135 per kilo and asparagus at NT$260 per kilo, the company said.
Meanwhile, sales of fruit at the market fell slightly yesterday but the price remained relatively stable.
A total of 638 tonnes of fruit were sold at an average price of NT$30.8 per kilo yesterday, compared with 894 tonnes sold at an average price of NT$30.84 per kilo on Saturday.
The prices of most types of fruit were down yesterday because of low demand amid the stormy weather. Many fruit vendors in Taipei were closed yesterday morning.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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