The price of edible agricultural products rose for 3 weeks

Under the influence of rain and snow and freezing weather, the price of edible agricultural products monitored by the Ministry of Commerce rose slightly for three consecutive weeks. The Ministry of Commerce estimates that the next relatively high period of winter vegetable production costs and the strong holiday demand will support vegetable prices. The overall supply of vegetables in the country is relatively sufficient. It is expected that the price of vegetables before the Spring Festival will generally rise.

The three consecutive weeks of rising prices and the expectation of continued upward growth in the later period brought pressure on the CPI at the beginning of the year. According to Lian Ping, chief economist of the Bank of Communications, the increase in CPI in 2011 was one of greater pressure in the first and second quarters, with a possible breakthrough of 6% in some months.

The reporter learned on the 11th that the price of edible agricultural products monitored by the Ministry of Commerce last week (January 3-9) rose slightly from the previous week (the same below). This is already the rise of the data for three consecutive weeks.

Due to the occurrence of rain, snow, and freezing weather in some areas that affected the production and transportation of vegetables, the wholesale price of 18 kinds of vegetables was 3.44 yuan/kg, which was 6.2% higher than the previous week, and the increase was increased by 4.6 percentage points. Among them, green pepper, bitter gourd, beans, rape, eggplant, cucumber Both lettuce and lettuce prices rose by over 10%.

A source from the Ministry of Commerce pointed out that the main factors affecting the recent price increase are seasonal factors, resulting in a decline in the supply of vegetables. From the perspective of the vegetable market over the years, the weather in the north of China was cold at the end of the year and was not suitable for the growth of open-air vegetables. The cost of vegetables for the facilities and the out-growing vegetables in the southern producing areas was high. Affected by this, the prices of vegetables in January and February were generally at the high point of the year.

In addition to affecting the supply of weather, weather is not conducive to transport. Since the beginning of the new year, there have been freezing rain disasters in Guizhou, Jiangxi, and other provinces. The out-regulation of vegetables in the south and the transportation of local vegetables have been affected to varying degrees. In addition, due to the approaching Spring Festival, residents’ vegetable consumption has risen sharply and market demand has been strong, driving up prices.

The monitoring also showed that in addition to vegetables, the consumption demand for meat and eggs increased and the prices generally rose. The prices of lamb, pork, eggs, white striped chicken and beef rose by 1.1%, 0.7%, 0.4%, 0.4% and 0.2% respectively. Food and edible oil retail prices continued to rise, with rice and flour prices rising by 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively. Soybean oil, peanut oil and rapeseed oil prices rose by 0.3%, 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

In the face of weather and demand pressures on prices, Zhu Jianfang, chief economist of CITIC Securities, believes that the increase in food prices is mainly due to expected price increases. As the current rise in food prices is expected, companies will increase the inventory of food raw materials, which will increase the pressure on food prices in the short-term, so there will be stronger inflation pressure at the beginning of the year.