China’s vegetable prices hit 10-year high

Recently, vegetable prices in many places have continued to rise. According to the national wholesale price data of 28 kinds of vegetables monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, from June 16 to August 15, the daily price of vegetables nationwide rose from 4.27 yuan/kg to 6.01 yuan/kg, an increase of 40.7%. Experts analyzed that the recent rise in vegetable prices is the result of the combined effect of multiple factors.

From the perspective of weekly prices, vegetable prices reached 4.91 yuan/kg in the 30th week of this year (July 22 to 28), the highest value in the same period in the past 10 years.

Kong Fantao, deputy director of the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, analyzed that from the rules of previous years, vegetable prices have shown seasonal fluctuations. Generally, from mid-June, vegetable prices enter the upward channel, reach a high point in early September, and then turn into a downward channel. The main reason is that the high temperature in summer is not conducive to the growth of vegetables, resulting in a relatively insufficient market supply and a “summer slack” phenomenon in vegetable production.

The abnormal weather during this summer vacation has had a certain impact on the growth and circulation of vegetables. This summer, my country has experienced more rainfall overall. Heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and strong winds have occurred in many places such as Hunan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Anhui, resulting in a decrease in vegetable production. The rainfall caused muddy or damaged roads in vegetable fields, which also affected the harvesting, transportation and listing of vegetables, resulting in tight supply and rising prices in some vegetable markets.

In May and June this year, due to factors such as the expansion of vegetable areas, overproduction and overlapping listings, some varieties of vegetables experienced regional and periodic sluggish sales, which reduced the expected returns of vegetable farmers and dampened the enthusiasm of some vegetable farmers. In some places, there were phenomena of premature pulling of seedlings, abandonment of management and abandonment of harvest.