Panic Buying of Toilet Paper Breaks out Across Taiwan

According to the Taiwan Times, panic buying of toilet paper broke out in late February in Taiwan as word spread of a steep hike in the price of the toilet tissue due to a drastic rise in global pulp prices.

Due to production disruptions in Brazil and forest fires in Canada, the global cost of short fiber pulp, which is used to produce toilet paper, has risen from US$650 per ton on average to US$800 as of February, according to the the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). One of the largest suppliers of toilet paper in Taiwan, YFY Inc., said that the rise in the price of pulp has caused costs to increase by more that 50 percent since mid-2017, and is continuing to climb, along with the cost of transportation and packaging.

Toilet paper suppliers have informed Taiwan's retailers that prices of the product will go up by 10 to 30 percent, likely starting in mid-March. This means that consumers are likely to see the cost of a 12 pack of inter-fold toilet paper to rise from NT$200 (US$6.84) to NT$260 (US$8.89).