Attributing the high vegetable prices on the domestic market to lower output caused by warmer than usual temperatures at this time of year, Vice Premier Chiu Cheng-hsiung forecast that “local vegetable prices would drop soon to their normal levels.”

Chiu was respondingto reporters’ questions on the issue following a meeting sponsored by the Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) in honor of friendly employers.

According to the vice premier, a Cabinet consumer product price stabilization panel, which meets every two weeks to monitor domestic retail price fluctuations, has taken note of the problem and has asked the council to address it swiftly.

His forecast was supported by Council of Agriculture (COA) Vice Minister Huang You-tsai, who said following the panel meeting which was presided over by Chiu earlier in the day that “local vegetable prices are likely to drop soon after winter produce comes on the market.”

“The cultivation of winter vegetables has resumed since the weather turned cooler recently,” Huang noted.

Huang ascribed the vegetable price hikes to short supply as a result of the devastation to the country’s agriculture brought by Typhoon Sinlaku in late September and to relatively high temperatures in October and November.

According to the vice minister, vegetable prices grew by an average 26 percent during the period Nov. 1-26.

“Vegetables supplies are set to return to normal this week, and vegetable wholesale prices at the Taipei agricultural distribution company have fallen since it took in as much as 1,500 metric tons of produce Tuesday,” he said.

Lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , meanwhile, accused the government of sitting idly by in the face of high prices.

DPP lawmaker Yeh Yi-jin asked the COA why retail vegetable prices have remained so high while the government is paying local farmers in the Tainan area, southern Taiwan so little for their produce.

She demanded that the consumer product price stabilization panel investigate whether middlemen were profiteering at this time.

Ruling Kuomintang lawmaker Wu Yu-sheng asked the Executive Yuan to show its teeth and respond to the DPP’s request, as there could be a long-term structural factor behind the spike in vegetable prices.

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