The government’s tightened restrictions to control a domestic COVID-19 outbreak have reduced sales in the local food and beverage industry by more than 60 percent, an iChef Co Ltd (資廚管理顧問) survey said yesterday.
The restaurant mobile point-of-sale information advisory firm’s survey said that since the level 3 alert went into effect on May 15, average weekly sales generated by the food and beverage industry from May 17 to June 6 were less than 40 percent of the weekly average in April.
The survey covered more than 7,000 restaurants and food stalls nationwide to show the effect the restrictions have had on the sector, iChef said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-te, Taipei Times
A restaurant or food vendor that generates NT$600,000 a month, needs to achieve at least 70 percent of its usual sales to make a profit, iChef cofounder Ken Chen (程開佑) said.
Therefore many outlets have incurred losses, Chen said, adding that with no sign of domestic infections abating anytime soon, the industry should plan for the worst so that it can survive protracted restrictions.
Under the level 3 alert, restaurants and food stalls can provide only takeout services, while on-site dining is not allowed. The alert, which has been extended twice, is to continue until June 28.
The average revenue posted by the restaurant and food industry in the week to May 23, the week to May 30 and last week fell to 38 percent, 37 percent and 39 percent of the weekly average in April respectively, iChef said.
At the same time, sales reported by food delivery services rose 40 percent from before the imposition of level 3 restrictions, while revenue generated by online orders directly operated by restaurants and food vendors soared more than 400 percent, the survey found.
In the first three weeks of the level 3 alert, takeout and food delivery accounted for more than 70 percent of the industry’s total sales.
In the first, second and third week of the level 3 alert, sales from food delivery services rose 36 percent, 48 percent and 41 percent respectively, Chen said.
That indicates that the service seems to have hit a peak, potentially due to the limited capacity of restaurant and food delivery operators, and consumer plans to rein in consumption in preparation for longer restrictions, he said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
RSS