Vegetable supply increases in April, gradually entering peak season in May
According to monitoring by the Ministry of Agriculture's vegetable production information network, vegetable supply in April increased slightly year-on-year and rose month-on-month, while farm-gate wholesale prices continued to fall month-on-month. In May, vegetable production will gradually enter the peak season, and supply is expected to increase, with farm-gate wholesale prices still trending downward.
Vegetable supply in April increased both year-on-year and month-on-month. The 580 key vegetable county information monitoring points recorded a vegetable output of nearly 950,000 tonnes, a slight year-on-year increase and a 9.5% month-on-month increase. By region, the pattern showed "three increases, two decreases and one flat." In the northern high-latitude summer-autumn vegetable advantage area, the Yangtze River basin winter-spring vegetable advantage area, and the Huang-Huai-Hai and Bohai Rim protected vegetable advantage area, output increased by 19.0%, 3.7% and 3.4% year-on-year respectively; in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau summer-autumn vegetable advantage area, due to planting structure adjustments in some parts of Guizhou Province, the area decreased noticeably, with output down 7.5% year-on-year; in the South China and Southwest hot-zone winter-spring vegetable advantage area, planting area decreased, and in addition tomatoes and other vegetables were cleared early due to low prices, with output down 7.4% year-on-year; in the Loess Plateau summer-autumn vegetable advantage area, output was basically flat year-on-year. By type, among the 20 categories of vegetables, 7 categories including cucumber, tomato, pak choi, cauliflower, radish, winter melon and zucchini saw output increase by more than 3% year-on-year; 7 categories including Chinese cabbage, head cabbage, garlic, chili pepper, cowpea, carrot and kidney bean saw output decrease by more than 3% year-on-year, while output of the remaining types was basically stable.
Farm-gate wholesale vegetable prices continued to fall month-on-month in April. In April, the average farm-gate wholesale price of vegetables at the 580 key vegetable county information monitoring points was 3.63 yuan/kg, up 9.0% year-on-year and down 4.0% month-on-month. The prices for the three ten-day periods were 3.69 yuan/kg, 3.71 yuan/kg and 3.49 yuan/kg respectively. By variety, 5 types of vegetables rose by more than 10% month-on-month, 10 types fell by more than 10% month-on-month, and prices of other varieties were basically stable.
In May, vegetable production is expected to gradually enter the peak season, and prices will continue to fall. According to statistics, at the end of April, the area under vegetables in the fields at the 580 key vegetable county information monitoring points was more than 1.38 million mu, up 1.6% year-on-year and up 17.8% month-on-month. Among these, 6 categories of vegetables including radish, spinach, cauliflower, kidney bean, garlic and tomato saw their area under cultivation at the end of the month increase by more than 3% year-on-year. Experts analyse that in May, temperatures will rise noticeably, which is favourable for vegetable production; vegetable supply is expected to increase, and farm-gate wholesale prices will still trend downward.