The price of agricultural products has risen steadily for eight weeks.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce, as of January 9-15, the price of edible agricultural products monitored by the Ministry of Agriculture rose slightly, rising for the eighth consecutive week since the end of November.

In addition, the “National Agricultural Wholesale Price Index” announced by the Ministry of Agriculture has seen a significant increase since January. As of January 17, the index reached 198.4, up more than 4% from the end of December.

Vegetables and meat are still the "main force" for recent price increases. The wholesale price of 18 kinds of vegetables monitored by the Ministry of Commerce rose by 4.9% from the previous week, and the cumulative increase over November was more than 50%. Affected by the increase in demand before the holiday, meat prices continued to rise from the previous week. Prices of pork, mutton, and beef rose by 0.8%, 0.6%, and 0.5%, respectively; prices of white broilers rose by 0.4%.

Ma Wenfeng, an analyst at Eastern Iger Agricultural Consulting Co., told the Economic Information Daily that recent price increases were mainly due to increased currency issuance, increased demand, and natural factors. The recent widespread rain and snow weather throughout the country will drive vegetable prices to continue to rise.

“Because the Spring Festival and returning home tide are close to the highest peak, there may be an upside down in the price of some live pig production areas beyond the sales price in the week before the Spring Festival,” said Feng Yonghui, chief analyst of Sogou.com.

At the same time, the most significant impact on pork prices is the release of reserve meat. Currently approaching the Spring Festival, the central and prefecture-level reserves all have pork on the market to stabilize pork prices during the Spring Festival. This phenomenon has occurred on the eve of the Spring Festival in 2010 and 2011, and there has been a phenomenon that for the second consecutive year, the price of pork in the Spring Festival not only has not risen but has fallen. This year, due to the tight supply and demand of live pigs, even if it is put on reserve meat, its impact may not be as large as in the previous two years.

Ma Wenfeng believes that earlier this year the Spring Festival, consumer demand advance in advance. After the Spring Festival, the total social demand has dropped and the prices of agricultural products will fall back, among which there will be large declines in off-season vegetables. The amount of live pigs is currently at a high level two years ago. With the reduction of meat consumption after the holiday, the price of meat will also fall back.