achios and other nuts will go up 30% on average during the upcoming Lunar New Year period, our sister paper China Times reported on Jan. 7.The price of pistachios will be the most expensive among all nuts for the Lunar New Year, an anonymous source said.
Wu Kuan-teh, head of the Taipei Bakery Association, said that the average price for nuts will go up between 10%-30%.
"The production costs for nuts has not increased during the past year, but there has been more competition from China and people have become more concerned with healthy eating, therefore a price rise in nuts, which are seen as a healthy food, is natural," Wu said.
In addition to nuts, prices for orbfish, often used as an offering at Chinese New Year, also went up 40% during the past week and the rise is expected to continue.
In response to the price rises, Carrefour said it recommended customers purchase substitutes.
Imported apples from Japan, local oranges, and yellow croakers, the prices of which have gone down this year, can be good substitutes for those items whose prices went up this year, a spokesman for Carrefour said.
