Vegetable prices in Hangzhou, Zhejiang may soon see a new round of increases

According to the business forecast of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Commerce, during this period (December 14 - December 20), the overall prices of daily necessities in Zhejiang Province rose, with vegetables and aquatic products leading the gains.

As temperatures continue to drop, offshore fishing catches keep declining, and the overall output of freshwater fish is relatively weak. Combined with traders' growing reluctance to sell and their tendency to stockpile ahead of the holiday, prices of aquatic products rose somewhat, with the average wholesale price of aquatic products up 1.5% period-on-period.

During this period, our province saw several days of fine weather, and the pace of vegetable price increases slowed somewhat, with the average wholesale price up 1.1% period-on-period, 1.9 percentage points less than last week. The monitored vegetables showed little fluctuation, with 4 of the seven major categories rising, 1 falling and 2 flat. Among them, leafy vegetables, melon vegetables, scallions and garlic, and solanaceous vegetables rose 1.2%, 1.7%, 2.2% and 2.3% respectively; brassica vegetables fell 0.6%; root and stem vegetables and beans were flat. Eggs and pork rose 0.3% and 0.6% respectively.

Our province is about to see another round of cooling and rain, which will again put some pressure on vegetable harvesting and transportation, and vegetable prices may face a new round of increases. As New Year's Day approaches, aquatic product prices still have room to rise.