Wuhan vegetable and meat prices expected to fall in March

According to the Wuhan Municipal Development and Reform Commission, in February, the monitored retail prices of staple and non-staple foods in Wuhan's farmers' markets compared with the previous month: prices of grain and oil, vegetables, pork, beef, poultry and aquatic products rose; prices of eggs and soy products fell slightly.    

Due to the effect of the Spring Festival, residents rushed to stock up on vegetables for the holiday, market demand was strong, and supply increased greatly, so the vegetable market saw both strong supply and demand, and overall vegetable prices rose noticeably. The comprehensive average retail price of the 20 monitored vegetable varieties was 4.47 yuan per jin, with most vegetable varieties such as baby bok choy, cauliflower and long beans showing obvious price increases. Also due to the Spring Festival effect, the prices of cooking oil, pork, aquatic products and poultry meat rose by varying degrees.    

As the holiday draws to a close, market demand is gradually fading, while residents and meat enterprises stocked up heavily before the Spring Festival, and the pre-holiday inventory has not yet been fully consumed, so the role of cured meat in replacing fresh meat consumption is gradually emerging. In addition, the supply of pigs on the market is sufficient, while slaughterhouses have small slaughter volumes and a strong willingness to push prices down, so pig prices have kept falling continuously. As market demand is now gradually entering a period of temporary weakness, pork prices are expected to continue declining. Moreover, as temperatures keep rising and the market returns to normal order, vegetable prices will show a seasonal decline later on, laying hens will produce more eggs, and egg prices will still run weakly in the later period.