Vegetable prices jump 53 percent
29/3/2005 7:26
Shanghai Daily news
Vegetable prices rose 53
percent last month compared to January due to the cold winter, said a Shanghai
Statistics Bureau report.
Prices of seafood, poultry and meat products also
rose to varying degrees.
Experts said most food prices will drop to normal
levels in the next few weeks.
According to the report, fresh vegetables went
up 31.6 percent year-on-year last month, in addition to a big rise in
January.
The main reason for the increase was the weather. A cold, wet winter
in the Yangtze River Delta - including five snow falls - reduced crop yields
about 40 percent, said Zhang Sirong, director of the Shanghai Vegetable
Office.
"Since neighboring provinces were also affected by the abnormal
weather and couldn't provide vegetables to the Shanghai market, supplies have
been reduced," he said.
In addition to the inclement weather, more than 5,000
hectares of land used to grow vegetables were switched over to grow grain this
year.
The shanghai Agricultural Commission said it started organizing farmers
to grow more vegetables in late February.
"Since a period of time is needed
for vegetables to grow, prices will gradually drop to normal levels," Zhang
said.
The food price increase of other items was due to booming consumption
during the Spring Festival.
The report said seafood prices rose 17.2 percent
in February from the previous month. The increase was most notable among shrimps
and hairy crabs, which rose 28.3 percent and 49.5 percent respectively.
One
analyst said the increase was expected.
"On one hand, higher demand during
the holiday made prices jump. On the other hand, fish and shrimps are in an
incubation period, so the supply has shrunk," said an analyst surnamed Cen at
the city's fishery office. "Prices will drop in April as supplies
increase."
The price of pork and beef remained stable. Both increased
slightly at 1.1 percent and 2.9 percent respectively last month compared to
January. Poultry jumped 10 percent, according to the statistics bureau's report.
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