The economic downturn has forced nearly 10 percent of the nation’s bakeries to close this year, and more are expected to quit the market, a top Taipei Bakery Association (台北市糕餅商業同業公會) executive said yesterday.
The volatility of commodity prices and the economic downturn have had a pincer effect on many bakeries this year, forcing some to close and a growing number to join forces with coffee shops or market their products through the Internet, Taipei Bakery Association chairman Ellen Yin (尹玉仙) said.
“Innovation is still the key to help bakery operators buck the economic downturn,” Yin told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a press briefing ahead of the Taipei International Bakery Show.
Taipei International Bakery Show 2009, the largest of its kind in Asia, has booked 179 suppliers using 474 booths to showcase their baked goods and bakery equipment.
The show will be held from Thursday through Sunday next week at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall One in Taipei’s Xinyi district.
Orange Mart (柑仔店), which operates four bakeries in Hsinchu specializing in European-style and organic bread, said sales had dropped between 10 percent and 20 percent this year because customers had reduced the number of visits to their stores.
Ho Ping-tung (何屏東), executive assistant to the president of Orange Mart, said business was significantly affected by the large number of workers in Hsinchu being asked to take unpaid leave.
However, Ho said, the average amount spent by each customer had increased because customers visited the bakeries less often but spent more each time.
EARLY TALKS: Measures under consideration include convincing allies to match US curbs, further restricting exports of AI chips or GPUs, and blocking Chinese investments US President Donald Trump’s administration is sketching out tougher versions of US semiconductor curbs and pressuring key allies to escalate their restrictions on China’s chip industry, an early indication the new US president plans to expand efforts that began under former US president Joe Biden to limit Beijing’s technological prowess. Trump officials recently met with their Japanese and Dutch counterparts about restricting Tokyo Electron Ltd and ASML Holding NV engineers from maintaining semiconductor gear in China, people familiar with the matter said. The aim, which was also a priority for Biden, is to see key allies match China curbs the US
The popular Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) arbitrage trade might soon see a change in dynamics that could affect the trading of the US listing versus the local one. And for anyone who wants to monetize the elevated premium, Goldman Sachs Group Inc highlights potential trades. A note from the bank’s sales desk published on Friday said that demand for TSMC’s Taipei-traded stock could rise as Taiwan’s regulator is considering an amendment to local exchange-traded funds’ (ETFs) ownership. The changes, which could come in the first half of this year, could push up the current 30 percent single-stock weight limit
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
RSS