The Dragon Boat Festival is still three days away, but many major hotels in
Taipei have sold out their high-priced rice dumplings, or zongzi.

Grand Hyatt Taipei introduced 3 new flavors of zongzi gift sets this year
with their prices increased by some 150 NT per set due to rising cost
compared with last year.

However, the demand was so high that they kept a low profile and didn't
advertise the products.

Even so, all the gift sets were sold out last week, forcing the hotel to
release their Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes months ahead of time.

Other hotels, including Regent Taiwan, Taipei Shangri-La, Ambassador,
Marriott, Hotel Royal and My Humble House Group, have had similar situations,
saying that the price hikes by an average of 10- to 15-percent did not scare
away consumers.

My Humble House says their luxurious Michelin two-star rice dumpling set,
priced at $4,200 NT for a set of 6, sold out in just 10 days for the initial
batch of 300.

Meanwhile Regent Hotel Taiwan expects its revenue for the Dragon Boat
Festival gifts to reach 35-million NT in total this year, that's 10 million
NT more than the previous year.

Market analysts say over the past two years, business opportunities for rice
dumpling gifts have boomed as many companies chose hotel rice dumplings as
gifts for their clients, forming a new trend.

The fact that zongzi are mostly handmade by hotel chefs with limited
production capacity has also added the value of the products.

(JL)