Jinan releases reserve vegetables, cabbage sells for only around 1 yuan

In recent days, Jinan has been hit by snow, falling temperatures and a cold wave, causing vegetable prices to soar. To stabilize vegetable prices and ensure the supply of the “vegetable basket” in the Jinan urban area, on January 23, Jinan used the government's emergency reserve vegetables and officially released them to the market, at prices substantially lower than market prices. It is understood that this is the first time since Jinan established the winter emergency vegetable reserve system that reserves have been released to the market to stabilize vegetable prices.

Monitoring data from the price department show that in recent days most vegetable prices on the market have risen, with some vegetable prices rising by more than 20% in a single day, and increases generally exceeding 30% compared with last week, with some even exceeding 70%. On the 23rd, a relevant person from the Jinan Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that as early as 2011, Jinan had already established a winter vegetable emergency reserve system, precisely to respond to special situations such as extreme severe weather. On December 1, 2015, this winter's purchase and storage plan had already been completed, with a total reserve of 15,000 tonnes of vegetables in 4 varieties, including 10,000 tonnes of Chinese cabbage, 3,000 tonnes of potatoes, 1,000 tonnes of radishes and 1,000 tonnes of carrots. At present, 7 enterprises including Jinan Hualian and the Kuangshan Vegetable Wholesale Market are undertaking the storage. These enterprises were determined according to the principles of “combining near and far, balanced distribution, all locally produced, convenient transfer, and timely release”, and the government will provide certain financial subsidies. On the 23rd, according to the deployment of the Jinan Municipal Bureau of Commerce, the storage enterprises began releasing reserve vegetables to stabilize vegetable prices.

Early on the 23rd, reporters saw at Jinan Hualian's reserve base in Tangwang Town that staff were working overtime to release some reserve vegetables to various supermarket stores. The prices of these reserve vegetables were far lower than market prices. For example, cabbage at Hualian Supermarket sold for only 0.99 yuan/jin, even lower than the wholesale price at the Kuangshan wholesale market (1 yuan/jin). “Since we receive government subsidies, the price must certainly be lower than the market price.” A relevant person from the Jinan Municipal Bureau of Commerce said that there are regulations on release prices, which will refer to the wholesale price of the same variety on that day at the Kuangshan Vegetable Wholesale Market; the release price of the storage entities is more than 10% lower, and the wholesale-retail price difference at release retail points is controlled within 50%.

According to the introduction, Jinan's emergency reserve vegetables total 15,000 tonnes, mainly calculated according to the demand for 4 to 5 days for the urban area's population of 4 million. Industry insiders said that next week Jinan's temperatures will gradually rise, and by then the tight supply situation will ease, vegetable prices will gradually fall back, and this release of reserve vegetables is expected to play its due role.