Kota Kinabalu: Those celebrating Chinese New Year this year may have to be more thrifty as many of the festive items have become more pricey.Surveys carried out at departmental stores and stalls in town found prices of goods such as mandarin oranges, packet food, canned food, nien gau and other tidbits have increased.
Housewife Annie Chong, from Keningau, said among the food she found to be expensive were mushrooms, red onions and garlic.
"Last week I saw the mushrooms cost RM44 a kilogramme and today the price is RM54 for the same amount, while red onions cost about RM18 a kilo and garlic almost RM10, depending on where the goods are sold," she said.
She said it was hard to buy as much as she did in previous years because prices have gone up and money is hard to find.
Peter Chong also stated that canned food, mandarin oranges, pork and duck sausages (lap cheong and lap ap) were the type of items with obvious price hikes.
"For example, the lap ap last year was only RM 6.50 but RM7.30 this year, so seeing all these price hikes, I have no choice but to buy less," he said.
Mark Chong, 25, who supplies lap cheong as a part time job, said although the price has gone up by 50 sen, he still sells it at RM15 a pack, just like he did last year, fearing fewer customers if he too increased the price.
"What else can I do? I have to make do with less profit, it is better than having no one to buy my food right?" he said, adding that supply is quite low because the main suppliers chose to export the food to neighbouring countries because they can pay for them.
Another, Louis F.C Thien, 24, was quite unhappy that many of the Chinese New Year goods have become so expensive.
"Items such as mandarin oranges, duck, chicken, food at coffee shops, eggs and even barber services are expensive now, it is unfair and I feel unhappy.
"It is like stealing my things while my house is on fire, because you see, people do not earn that much here, but the price of things keep increasing," he complained.
Likewise, Lucy Galimam, 50, who was shopping in Wisma Merdeka, also expressed her thoughts on this matter, saying prices of items were quite high but she was not sure whether they have increased.
On the other hand, Dolly Chee, who was buying things at the Sunny Supermarket, said many of the things she bought recently did not seem to have increased in price.
"I see that some of the things sold are still priced at a similar rate as last year," she said.
Meanwhile, large-size China mandarin oranges are sold at about RM18 per box with 24 oranges in it, RM16 for the medium-size ones and about RM12 for small-size oranges at the Milimewa Superstore in town.
There are some items in town which still have not increased in price, such as grilled pork, duck, lobster and chicken more commonly known among the Chinese as "Rou Gan."
Henry Yong, who sells food such as mandarin oranges and grilled meat, said even though the price of mandarin oranges has increased by about 10 to 20 per cent, he still maintains the price of Rou Gan at RM70 per kilo.
"Price of pork did not increase, and our suppliers did not charge us more, so of course we won't be charging more for these grilled meat."
Another seller of the Sin Bee Heong brand Rou Gan, Sherry Yong, said she also sells the food at RM70 per kilo, same as previous years as prices of raw materials did not increase.
Decoration trader Jamie Chu, on the other hand, revealed that the prices of decorations are still more or less the same as last year.
"There is more competition now, so to make sure the business keeps going, I decided not to increase the prices of items sold here," she said.
The things sold include lantern, red banners with wishes, posters, figurines and decorative lights and flowers.
