Lots of products are more expensive, higher packing cost due to shortages of steel, paper, not enough transport … a whole cycle interconnected.
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Compared to the US dollar yes but in terms of purchasing power no.
No one is “printing money”. There are a lot of reasons for inflation, but most of them center around low interest rates and supply chain issues. It is not because of “printing money” because there is no money being printed
When I went to exchange NT for USD I was flabbergasted at what the new 100 dollar bill looked like. I seriously thought the bank was just about to hand me monopoly money in exchange for my NT notes. Those new notes look like toys. Yes I understand they have all new security measure and all that… but it was almost as if they deliberately made the new 100 dollar note look like monopoly money, in order to subconsciously tell you that these are literally fake money.
And it seems the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is coming out with these tinted banknotes that is suspiciously close to monopoly money color…
It was the big 100 on the back that really gave it the monopoly vibe…
Even the color looks similar too…
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Having spent the summer in the US, I can safely say food inflation is not a Taiwan thing. In fact, it appears completely non-existent here compared to there.
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This is an ironic post from anyone in Taiwan. The money is far more Monopolyesque here than any version of US currency.
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Cabbage was being sold at 250NTD for HALF the piece last I checked.
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That’s not how modern monetary theory works. Your article is fear mongering, like the debt “clock”. National banks and governments where the world exchanges in their currency (USD) do not have the same issues to answer to as countries with weaker currencies (Venezuela) or individual civilians.
Inflation is being caused by supply chain problems and low interest rates. You can look at the price of wood, which was insanely high at the beginning of 2021 and dropped, as an example of transitory inflation. As people want things that are stuck on cargo ships for weeks and then cargo ships are just turning around and going back to Asia empty because they can charge 10x what they used to charge for shipping, plus the Evergiven, there are pricing problems. Imagine that.
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I agree with this 1000% after being in Hawaii and other mainland states like you. It was very esay in the USA to spend NT$1000 at the supermarket. The cheapest thing I got was Amzaon brand Japanese/Taiwanese rice apox NT$75 per kg. (I like the Amazon Fresh markets, something new)
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The ppint people are COMPLETELY MISSING is that food has previously been deflated in value not that its currently going through infaltion. Anyone that this hurts should seriously redo their books because the true value/cost of food is far higher than what we are still seeing today. Expect it to rise until the next coming evolution of lab/indoor produced food. this isnt sarcasm or a joke, but reality. Some countries will be hit more or less. And i dont see taiwans non existent food security, shitty water security and frankly on the fence national security equating to.massive confidence. The only thing taiwan has going for it is wealth, which is largely created via very unfriendly industry as far as environment and health go…so its not ideal. Just saying.
Seriously, rebudget for triple what you spend now if you buy grocies and cook at home. Keep the extra to save for something important. Maybe clean air in the future haha.
Decades of stupidly low food prices have really damaged the planet, its time we pay more, waste less and rethink AG.
If you buy brand name rice here it will cost you that if not more per kilogram. I buy this brand, which on special right still higher than that calrose.
But do you see undifferentiated comparisons to consumer prices in high wage economies are invalid? It’s the cost as a percentage of the average wage that is totally out of whack and wrong in Taiwan.
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Food (groceries and veg and meat) are really expensive, no matter what folks like Gain say , and it’s mainly lack of retail competition and local cartels I world guess .
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I was reading about an American who was trying to open a factory in his family’s home state in India, on arable land. It was a long tale about all the bribes he had to pay and paperwork he had to do. In the end he ended up in some sort of bribe/paper shuffle deadlock, there were two departments who both had to sign off that wouldn’t budge, and he got nowhere. The difficulty he implied, seemed almost by design. The point I took away is that even though they are going through massive industrialisation there, food security is still at the top of their list. Put simply, you need enough arable land to feed your people, and then some.
Anyway I’m not saying we are Singapore here, in terms of that level of pathetic in food security, but the discussion point I would like to raise is, are the plots we do have in Taiwan large enough to be mechanised to the extent of somewhere like Australia with a similar population?
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I wonder if the limited labour pool would be part of the mix here.
The massive scale of agribusiness means (at least in North America) migrant workers on farms, which up until now has not been legally done (though it must be done informally with undocumented workers—and I think I recall that changes may be coming in law).
Guy
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Its hard as hell to open a food factory in taiwan as well. They have evolved the bribe system into hiring an agent/consultant to make it look more legit here.
As for making taiwan like australia, or any big country, taiwan has another issue of most farms are very small. This makes automation less efficient. In Australia, canada, usa, india etc kilometers of farmland can be done nearly without humans. People load the tractors, maintain them etc then operate remotely. They can do everything now via gps extremely effciently and fast. Taiwan will be very difficult to do that based on llot size and land cost. In taiwan we more along the lines of drones rather than automated tractors running irrigation, fertilizers, sprays etc.
An interesting note. For many crops, this year and mid to late last year have been VERY low prices paid to farmers. Its ironic the food inflation costs on the shelves are coinciding with the lower prices he middlemen are paying the farmers…this summer the flooding spiked some crops prices as they nkrmally do each summer, and they should go down again in a month or 2. If they dont go down, you can see pretty clear the price gouging going on. what annoys me is when they take advantage of people and blame covid while paying farmers less. It should be criminal.
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A fun note is how prevalent AG theft is in taiwan. Its quite common island wide and over many different crops. Machinery theft as well, but not asrelated to this thread.
Food prices ‘apples-to-apples’ are much higher in Taiwan than they are here in Oregon. Quality and selection are also much lower in Taiwan. There’s been some mild inflation in food prices here in the U.S. in my experience but nothing significant.
Farming in Japan is a possibility in the future because the system there is fair and professional in my experience living in the countryside part-time for twelve years now. I have a large greenhouse there and went through the process of getting certified organic via the local farm association and it was a transparent, reasonable process. The problem is foreigners can’t own farmland currently (my land is zoned forest, which foreigners can own) but that may change in the near future as Japanese farmers age out and there’s just no one left to farm. You’ll need to prove your farming chops to the local farm association to qualify for owning agricultural land as Japan is adamant about preserving its food production resources. I’m just waiting for the moment Japan amends its laws to allow conditional foreign ownership as I consider it a phenomenal investment opportunity.
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It depends on where you buy the food. It’s always more expensive buying it at the supermarket. Apples are imported (not grown in Taiwan, for the most part) and so there are some expenses as a result. But at the same time you can’t find most the fruits you can find in Taiwan in the states either.
I never liked eating fruits in the states due to how sour they are…
Also, beef in the states are often low quality if you buy it at discounters… because the good stuff comes to Taiwan. If you want the good stuff in the states they are also expensive too.
I speak from experience… ate some beef that someone bought for around 1.50 per pound and it tasted like leather. The stuff is not even fit for dogs.
Very much agreed. Though on price comparisons Taiwan should not be compared to usa on raw food prices. one because of the market size and.purchasing abilities for cheaper bulk pricig. Secondly due to land availability and cheaper prices in numerous climate types to allow for lots of quantity of most things. Getting cheap foreign labor is also far easier stateside than an island nation.
I dont have nearly the experience you have in. Japan, but the brief period we lived there and were studying their farm styles i would tend to agree with your points. Taiwan is way too messy. Its changing, but we still got some china in us as far as these issues go!