News Brief: Fair Trade Commission criticised over coffee fines

Following the imposition of fines recently by the Fair Trade Commission on convenience store chains for coordinated raising of coffee prices, a legislator yesterday criticised the FTC in the legislative Yuan, the Liberty Times reports today (Chinese-language article here).

Democratic Progressive Party legislator Li Jun-yi (李俊毅) said that since it was unable to make vendors return prices to their original levels, the FTC should join Premier Wu Dun-yi's (吳敦義) list of "incompetent" government agencies.

FTC chairperson Wu Shiow-ming (吳秀明) responded that forcing vendors to lower prices would be degenerating into populism (淪為民粹).

                                                                                              Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

News Brief: Convenience stores fined for price-fixing coffee

Taiwan's "Big Four" convenience store chains were fined for price-fixing by the Fair Trade Commission, the Taipei Times reported today (full article here)

7-Eleven was fined NT$16 million (ca. US$500,000), FamilyMart NT$2.5 million, Hi-Life  NT$1 million and OK Mart NT$500,000.

(See earlier NOMM reports here and here)

News Brief: “Coffee Clause” passes first legislative hurdle

The first review of the so-called Coffee Clause (咖啡條款) amendment to the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法) was passed yesterday by the Economics Committee (經濟委員會) of the Legislative Yuan (立法院; Taiwan’s legislature) the United Daily News (聯合報) reported today (full Chinese-language article here). If the amendment passes its third reading, which could happen as early as December, this will raise the maximum penalty for collusion in price fixing from NT$25 million (ca. US$800,000) to as much as 10 percent of annual sales of the product concerned. Estimates of sales by the “big four” convenience stores chains—which have been accused of colluding to raise prices of milk-containing coffees—suggest that around 100 million cups are sold each year. At an average cost of NT$40 (US$1.30) per cup, this would indicate annual sales of around NT$4 billion (US$130 million) and therefore potential fines of NT$400 million (US$13 million). The Fair Trade Commission under the Executive Yuan (行政院公平會) is due to make its report into price fixing on coffee by convenience stores by November 6.                                                                                                                       Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

News Brief: Starbucks "explains" why soymilk coffee also goes up in price

Following consumer complaints that the recent NT$10 price hike on coffee at Starbucks due to rising milk costs had also included soymilk coffee, the head of Starbucks marketing, Mr. Zhong (仲), said "What we provide is a more intimate service, allowing customers to pick and choose their own ingredients in accordance with their own requirements. As a consequence, in the holistic planning and consideration, we apply a holistic approach to formulate our conceptual basis." [or some such B.S.] (我們提供的是一種比較貼心的服務，讓顧客可以根據他自己本身的需要，來調整他所使用的原料。所以在整體的計算跟考量，我們是用整體的概念來做整個構思的基礎。) see full article here

                                                                                                                      Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

Recipe: The BEST soymilk coffee (unless you know better) II

Following Shad's comment (here), NOMM bought some Oat Soya Milk (燕麥豆奶; NT$39, or less in supermarkets) manufactured by IMei (義美).

As she said, its lower soybean flavour does allow the coffee flavour through more intact.

Vegan and made from ingredients imported from Australia, it is available in both regular and sugar-free (無糖) versions.

                                                                                                                      Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

Review: Hot Pot resaturant, Taipei

With this week's topic in mind, NOMM went in search of a cup of soymilk-creamed coffee. A quick Internet search brought up two possibilities: Starbucks and Loving Hut.

Starbucks, which like 7-Eleven is owned by Taiwan's largest food manufacturer and retailer Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), deserves credit for offering a soymilk option at all branches. This is possibly the WORST CUP OF COFFEE IN THE WORLD, however, since the coffee's flavour is almost completely hidden by a nasty, sweet taste that is presumably the soymilk. Moreover, at NT$105 for a small cup is not cheap (though again, Starbucks deserves credit for its NT$10 discount to customers using their own cups).

Regular soymilk users say that Uni-President's brand is among the worst available, and since Starbucks uses the sweetened version, staff are incapable of complying with a request for a sugar-free drink.

Loving Hut, which has 28 restaurants in Taiwan out of 135 worldwide, offers a vegan cappuccino. Each branch has its own menu; NOMM visited the Guangfu store, which sells hot pots and stews, with sides of pancakes, skewers and kimchi, cakes for desserts and various beverages.


The soup of the hot pot (NT$199) was tasty enough--NOMM chose Southeast Asian pumpkin and coconut from the half-dozen available--and free top-ups were taken. The other ingredients included too many processed and fake-meat items, however, and more than half of the vegetables was simply cabbage.

The pancake (NT$50) flavoured with Chinese toon (Toona sinensis; 香椿), which is becoming increasingly popular both on and off the local vegetarian scene, was good. Another positive point for Western vegetarians is that Loving Hut offers garlic and onions, unlike most Buddhist and Yiguandao restaurants in Taiwan.
On the other hand, however, whereas most of the nation's vegetarian establishments play quiet music or chanting as the soundtrack to one's meal, LH restaurants have large flat-screen TVs continuously broadcasting programming from the Supreme Master Television station, which seems largely to be the ideology of the exotic bleach-blond Supreme Master Ching Hai. Her message of "save the planet - go vegan" is the ethos behind the brand.

The soymilk cappuccino (NT$70) was also more than adequate. A staff member explained that the more authentic flavour was due to the imported US creamer being a "bean milk" (豆奶) using mixed ingredients rather than a pure soybean milk. Although not officially for sale, she offered some to NOMM for NT$80 per 930ml bottle.
Many of the menu items are also available to take away for cooking at home, as are cups of coffee. This is good news for tired shoppers in Taipei's Zhongxiao E. Road district, since purchasing only a coffee for inside consumption is not possible due to LH's NT$120-minimum purchase for restaurant patrons.


Address: No.30, Lane 280, Guangfu S. Rd., Da-an District, Taipei City
Tel: (02) 2777 2711

                                                                                                                      Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

Feature: Milk and coffee price hikes make soy option worth another glance

When switching from dairy creamers, many would-be vegans find that soymilk tends to dominate the sought-after pleasant taste of coffee, often citing it as one of the common hurdles encountered in trying to change lifestyles for ethical or health reasons.

Explanation of product price change: Due to a rise in the price of fresh milk, the price of drinks containing milk are being changed with immediate effect (Americano and Iced Coffee remain unchanged. ... City Cafe

        Perhaps this week’s 10-15 percent hikes to the prices of take-away coffee imposed by at least three of Taiwan’s largest convenience-store chains (and following a similar price rise at Starbucks) will encourage vegetarians and other consumers (as well as more coffee vendors to join Starbucks) to give the environmentally friendlier soymilk another chance. The price increase comes on top of last month’s rise of NT$1.9/litre set by the Council of Agriculture (COA) for milk bought from local farmers, which has raised retail prices to around NT$70/litre in supermarkets and almost NT$90/litre in convenience stores. This compares to prices of NT$20 to NT$40/litre for soymilk.

        While those whose vegetarianism is inspired by desire not to kill animals can maintain that drinking milk does not harm the producing cow (even though the male 50 percent of her necessary offspring as well as many of the females enter the food chain), this argument is not available to environmentally concerned vegetarians. A cow emits climate-changing methane with each exhalation whether it is being fed to make steak or to make milk.

(On the other hand, of course, imported soybeans, which essentially means all soybeans sold in Taiwan other than the immature, green “hairy bean” 毛豆 snack, are not without their own carbon footprint. In addition to the emissions associated with shipping them—mostly from the Americas—there is the nastier issue of destruction of forests to make way for soybean plantations if consumers do not buy “Amazon-friendly” soy products [1].)

        Not surprisingly, Taiwan’s coffee drinkers (who consume around 5 million cups per day according to the London-based International Coffee Organization) are peeved by the news, with some talking about boycotting take-away coffee until prices are lowered. Similarly, the Consumer Foundation has suggested the convenience stores are operating a cartel, since three of the largest, 7-Eleven, Hi-Life and Family Mart, imposed hikes of the same magnitude on the same day. It has demanded the government’s Fair Trade Commission undertake an investigation, and even threatened to take the FTC to the Control Yuan if it fails to act. The COA under the Executive Yuan said it suspected coffee vendors were taking advantage of milk farmers.

        Perhaps the soft-power solution amidst these hard-sounding responses is, therefore, to give the soymilk (or other non-dairy creamer) option a chance, or better still, to drink coffee black and sugar-free. 

It is possibly with this in mind, and to soften the blow of its price increases, that 7-Eleven is also offering a "buy-1-get-a-second-cup-half-price" on Americano coffee this week.

       

                                                                                                                      Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

---

[1] More problems relating to soybean consumption will be discussed in a future column.

---