Mid-Autumn vegetable prices rose 20%, will they rise again for National Day?
The sudden arrival of "Fanapi" caught Guangzhou residents who had planned trips off guard, and also caught housewives preparing Mid-Autumn reunion dinners off guard. Under the combined effect of the tropical storm, the off-season for vegetables, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, the prices of some major vegetable varieties in Guangzhou rose by as much as 10-20% last week. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, aquatic product prices even doubled. Yesterday I visited several markets including the Dongxing Meat, Vegetable and Grain Market, and found that vegetable varieties were very few and the quality was poor. Prices of aquatic products and fruit rose even more significantly.
A reporter learned from the Municipal Price Monitoring Center that last week the prices of major vegetable varieties such as choy sum, water spinach, and white gourd rose by 10-20%. Affected by the festival demand effect, poultry and aquatic product prices generally rose, especially some medium- and high-grade poultry of better quality and live fresh aquatic products, which rose more substantially. According to analysis by the monitoring center, the reasons for the rise in vegetable prices were mainly concentrated in three aspects: first, the strong tropical storm "Fanapi" brought heavy rainfall, causing a negative impact on local vegetable production; second, some vegetable production recently entered the off-season, and supply decreased somewhat. Third, it coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the increase in festival demand also played a certain role in driving up vegetable prices. An aquatic product stall owner introduced that during the Mid-Autumn Festival, seafood prices rose very sharply, with bamboo shrimp once selling for 110 yuan per jin, and giant freshwater prawns also selling for 80-90 yuan per jin. "Although aquatic product prices have now almost returned to pre-festival levels, and vegetable prices in the past few days are not as expensive as during the Mid-Autumn Festival, prices will definitely start rising again for National Day!" said Xu Jiansheng, a quotation officer at the Dongchuan New Street Market.
Monitoring data showed that last week the average retail price of vegetables was 5.71 yuan per kg, up 0.41 yuan from the previous period, an increase of 7.74%. The price of Longmen bearded chicken at the Jiangcun Poultry Wholesale Market rose from 26 yuan/kg before the festival to 30 yuan/kg. Prices of some shrimp and crabs such as bamboo shrimp and roe crab at the Huangsha Aquatic Products Trading Market also rose by 10-20%. Pork and egg prices remained stable.