Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) visited Taipei’s markets on Tuesday to inspect the supply of essential commodities in preparation for the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays.
Chen visited the Taipei City Fish Wholesale Market and Taipei First Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market early Tuesday morning to inspect the flow of fresh goods. Chen said in a speech that consumer demand for agricultural and fishery products is expected to increase during the Lunar New Year holidays. The daily supply of fishery products alone is expected to increase by more than 30%, as fish is believed to bring good luck and prosperity for the coming year.
Chen mentioned that the Agriculture Ministry has been working with major wholesale markets to address the supply and demand requirements. He added that both the Agriculture Ministry and the Fisheries Agency have also been hard at work further developing the domestic aquaculture industry. With the recent cold front, the Fisheries Agency also stepped up efforts to coordinate with fish farmers to implement preventive measures to lower the risk of loss to certain fish species.
Chen ended his visit by distributing lucky new year bags and expressed his sincerest wishes to all the market vendors for a prosperous new year ahead.