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Commentators on social media in Taiwan were quick to point the blaming finger to neighboring China for a panic buying run on toilet paper over the weekend after word began to spread of an imminent sharp price rise and people said supermarkets would soon run out.

Shoppers then used social media to post pictures of the empty shelves in supermarkets on Monday morning as retailers reported the product was being bought up in bulk and they could no longer guarantee further deliveries.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Vendors collution? <a href="https://t.co/1b7mEAs9Uz">https://t.co/1b7mEAs9Uz</a></p>— Xiani P.Ch. 鄭夏霓 (@Xiani_PCh) <a href="https://twitter.com/Xiani_PCh/status/967674106916233217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Manufacturers have been writing to retailers for months warning that prices are set to rise by 10% to 30% as from March, when the extra cost of the rising raw material would be passed on to customers. Negotiations over new deliveries have been dragging on for months with Taiwanese supermarkets and their (mostly) North American providers not being able to conclude a deal.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">New post (Taiwan toilet paper panic: why is island caught short?) has been published on Buzzort - <a href="https://t.co/f6jF8OH89R">https://t.co/f6jF8OH89R</a> <a href="https://t.co/GbMHWX9vHo">pic.twitter.com/GbMHWX9vHo</a></p>— buzzort (@buzzort) <a href="https://twitter.com/buzzort/status/968060007416770560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2018</a></blockquote>

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According to Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, the price rise is due to the price of short fibre pulp, used to make toilet paper, now costing some $800 per tonne, whereas it was only $650 a year ago.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TPapocalypse: The great Taiwan toilet paper panic of 2018 | Taiwan News <a href="https://t.co/rmdzrHxsU8">https://t.co/rmdzrHxsU8</a></p>— Joseph T. T. Wu (@macliovelli) <a href="https://twitter.com/macliovelli/status/968014555224797185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Of course Taiwan could simply as its neighbor China for some extra supply, but the internet quickly reacted by saying that ‘I would rather use my hand than to ask China for toilet paper’

Of course China has nothing to do with the disruption in toilet paper delivery from Canada to the island nation of Taiwan but the complicated rivalry between the two countries (China and Taiwan) makes for a ‘sticky’ situation in this matter, and people on social media ‘tend’ to overreact.

Source:

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3371697