Officials at the Taipei Flower Market suggested Wednesday that as flowers are expected to be fairly inexpensive for Valentine's Day on Feb. 14, people should celebrate the day for lovers before continuing with their celebrations for Chinese New Year, which falls on the same day this year. Thanks to abundant supplies, rose prices will be cheaper than they were this time last year, according to Teng Yi-chin, a market manager responsible for planning. She also pointed out that the wholesale flower market in the Neihu district had been operating round-the-clock since the previous day, and encouraged couples to demonstrate their love for each other with flowers. According to Council of Agriculture (COA) statistics, trading at wholesale flower markets around Taiwan reached nearly 700,000 bunches of flowers Tuesday, marking a growth of 34.66 percent compared with the trading volume of Jan. 21, 2009, which was five days before the last Chinese New Year. The average price for all the various kinds of flowers available recorded a drop of 35.04 percent from the average NT$94.1 per bunch at that time to NT$61.2 Tuesday, the tallies show. A standard bunch consists of 12 flower stems. Meanwhile, the price of a bunch of roses was NT$124.3 on average in market trading that day, lower than the NT$162.6 last Valentine's Day, according to COA official Hsu Han-chi. Flower prices normally spike by as much as 30 percent on Valentine's Day in Taiwan, with the cost of a single rose often surging to between NT$100 and NT$250. 