One third of commercially sold zongzi for Dragon Boat Festival have risen in price; the cost of ingredients for making zongzi at home remains stable
In just over a week it will be Dragon Boat Festival. The Executive Yuan convened a price stability task force meeting to review the supply situation of key daily necessities for this year's Dragon Boat Festival. The festive food in question is of course zongzi. After surveying commercially sold zongzi, the Consumer Protection Committee found that two thirds had not raised prices, while only one third had increased their selling prices. The main reason for the price increases was higher personnel costs and packaging material costs. If you plan to make zongzi yourself, the Executive Yuan believes that the needed ingredients such as glutinous rice, shiitake mushrooms, peanuts, pork and dried squid can all be fully supplied.
The annual demand for glutinous rice at Dragon Boat Festival is about 1 metric ton. This year's first rice crop has already begun to be harvested, and 7,382 metric tons of glutinous white rice can be harvested before Dragon Boat Festival. Added to the 5,619 metric tons in stock, this totals 13,001 metric tons, which is more than enough. Domestic dried shiitake mushroom stocks stand at 500 metric tons, enough to meet the roughly 100 metric tons of shiitake mushrooms needed in the 5 days before the festival. Domestic shelled peanut stocks plus imports amount to about 5,200 metric tons. The additional 4,000 metric tons needed at Dragon Boat Festival each year compared with ordinary times can be covered under current conditions.
The key ingredient in zongzi is pork. The Council of Agriculture has coordinated with the large-scale supply and marketing system so that in the 7 trading days before the festival, the supply of hogs will rise to 24,594 head, an increase of 11.8% over ordinary times. Pre-festival demand for domestically produced pork comes from families making zongzi and from worship offerings, which require skin-on pork belly. Making zongzi also uses salted egg yolks, and duck eggs are likewise an essential ingredient. In the 7 days before the festival, the daily supply will be 1.4 million eggs, 200,000 more than on ordinary days, an increase of 16.7%.
Among the various daily necessities for Dragon Boat Festival, pork has drawn the greatest attention because of the African swine fever outbreak in neighboring countries. Because of its African swine fever outbreak, China must rely on large imports to meet its pork demand and has actively placed large orders with countries in disease-free areas, causing international pork prices to keep rising. This has created a certain degree of parity effect on our hog auction prices. According to the Executive Yuan price stability task force's survey of market pork prices, prices in January and February this year fell slightly compared with the same period last year, but by March and April they had risen, with year-on-year increases of 0.54% and 1.04% respectively. The results of a survey on the range of fluctuation in domestic market pork prices in May will be available in early June.
The Council of Agriculture assesses the current domestic pork supply situation and prices as follows: stocks of imported pork are sufficient, and retail prices remain stable. Domestic pork imports from January to April were about 3.2 metric tons, similar to last year, showing that stocks of imported pork are sufficient. For the benchmark domestic pork cuts, loin and pork belly, prices from the start of the year to now show no obvious fluctuation compared with the same period last year.
Global meat market prices have already been deeply affected by China's African swine fever outbreak and the global scramble for pork. There is a shortage of meat protein internationally, and prices have risen. The Council of Agriculture has proposed response measures, including: guiding pig farmers to raise their production target from 8.05 million head to 8.2 million head, having Taiwan Sugar Corporation increase pig production at the appropriate time, and having the Animal Industry Association release frozen stored pork at the appropriate time.
