Pricey or not, just gotta have my bak kwa on Chinese New Year

Business Times 7 Feb 08;

Inflation is no deterrent to fans of the traditional Chinese delicacy

Rising global energy and food prices and a jump in the nation's property market in 2007 have pushed up prices at the fastest rate in a quarter of a century.

(SINGAPORE) Eddie Yap's mother gave her son an ultimatum as he left on his day off to join the long queue for bak kwa, or flat sheets of barbequed pork, in Chinatown: Don't come back without it.

'She has been eating this brand for more than 10 years,' said Mr Yap, 23, a Singapore Air Force trainee. 'I'm going to get 14 kilos.'

Each traditional New Year, the Dutch eat donuts, the French bake brioche, the Japanese slurp red noodles and the Irish bury a ring in a cake. In Singapore, a Chinese New Year means queuing to buy packets of the salty-sweet pork for family reunions.

Buyers suffer the baking sun, tropical rainstorms and this year, a new deterrent that has pummelled consumers: inflation.

Rising global energy and food prices and a jump in the nation's property market in 2007 have pushed up prices at the fastest rate in a quarter of a century. Bak kwa has risen as much as 16 per cent from last year because of higher pork and oil prices.

Still, that hasn't deterred many from seeking out their favourite brand of the delicacy to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rat.

'Of course, it's expensive - but it's once a year and a must for Chinese New Year,' said Chua Geck Swee, 70, a retired civil servant who travelled an hour by bus and train to buy bak kwa for his six grandchildren. 'I've been eating this brand for 40 years. I know people who pay students and retirees to queue for them.'

More than 200 people lined up outside the Chinatown outlet of Lim Chee Guan on Monday, three days before the start of Chinese New Year today.

Rod Lim, the store's 57-year-old owner, imposed a 15kg cap on purchases this week after turning away customers willing to pay $50 a kilo for his traditional bak kwa, a 70-year-old recipe of his father's.

Mr Lim uses pork from the hind leg and the foreleg of the pig for his bak kwa, which is marinated and barbecued to ensure the meat is 'juicy and tender, even if you keep it for a few days'.

He competes with three other big bak kwa sellers in Chinatown, though there are hundreds of smaller retailers across the island, where over 70 per cent of the 4.6 million population are Chinese.

Consumer prices in Singapore rose in December at the fastest pace since 1982, and the central bank warned that inflation in 2008 will gain at more than double the pace of last year.

Food prices, which make up 23 per cent of the consumer price index, rose 5.5 per cent in December from a year earlier, following a 5.2 per cent increase in November, the government said last month. From November, food prices gained 0.6 per cent, and were 2.9 per cent higher for the whole of 2007.

'I'm honestly quite shocked at the price but everything has gone up,' said Mrs Leong, 37, a bank executive who was buying bak kwa on her day off. 'Everything is up 10, 20 per cent when you eat out, when you shop at the supermarket.'

Singapore's government has so far resisted calls to control prices of food and other so-called essential goods, though the government will provide some assistance to citizens when the nation's budget is announced next week, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told The Business Times earlier this week.

Still, spiralling costs aren't damping demand for bak kwa.

'It's once a year, so it's okay,' said Mr Yap, the Air Force trainee. 'I think they probably make millions of dollars this month, but for the rest of the year, nobody will queue like this.' - Bloomberg