Beijing anticorruption efforts boost local dry foodstuffs

January 12, 2014 Leave a comment

Beijing anticorruption efforts boost local dry foodstuffs
Saturday, January 11, 2014
By Kathryn Chiu , The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Upmarket dried ingredients imported from mainland China dropped 10-20 percent from last year at the Dihua New Year’s market on China’s anticorruption campaign, while Taiwan’s homegrown dried foodstuffs increased by the same rate.Although Lunar New Year vacation is three weeks away, Dihua Street has bustled with shoppers who are looking for dried foodstuffs and ingredients for traditional festive dishes.

A Taipei-based catering and dining industry association on Friday indicated that quality dried abalone, sea cucumbers and other ingredients imported from China plummeted 10-20 percent while homegrown dried foodstuffs including shell nuts and salted mullet roe upped by the same rate this year.

The average case is that the price of quality dried Chinese imports at this time of the year go up. Also, homegrown dried products have seen a bigger price hike than last year.

The association argued that price reduction of dried Chinese imports is caused by the Chinese Communist Party’s anticorruption campaign launched by mainland Chinese President –i Jinping (習近平) soon after –i was sworn in on March 14, 2013.

Locally produced dried foodstuffs registered a higher price hike due to the increase in gas and electricity bills, according to the association.

Sources from dried foodstuff vendors and suppliers said that –i’s anticorruption campaign, which has targeted China’s overly ostentatious government officials, has severely impacted the restaurant business in China at this time of year. Chinese vendors of dried foodstuffs have to find markets elsewhere in the world by using more aggressive pricing strategies.

Besides price hikes in oil and electricity, prices of Taiwan’s homegrown dried foodstuffs including mullet roe, shell nuts, mushrooms and jerkies also soared in reflection of fake and adulterated cooking oil scares. Sources told the Central News Agency that as a growing number of consumers are switching to peanut oil, the average price of shell nuts is trending up accordingly.

Filed under Macro Trends

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