Wang Yuanyuan
The average price of vegetables dropped by about 7 percent to 1.67 yuan (US$0.25) per 500 grams this week, according to the Buji Farm Produce Wholesale Market yesterday.
The average price of leafy vegetables dropped by more than 14 percent to 1.33 yuan from last week and about 40 to 50 percent from last month, said Yuan Weilian, an official with the market's management office.
Among leafy vegetables, the prices of spinach and cabbage have dropped by more than 35 percent to about 1.21 yuan and 0.47 yuan per 500 grams respectively.
Prices of other vegetables, such as onions, wax gourds and turnips, also dropped by more than 10 percent from last week, Yuan said.
The price drop was a direct result of vegetables grown in Guangdong Province coming onto the market, as these were cheaper in terms of transportation, storage and labor, said Luo Minghui, a wholesaler at the market. "There were many typhoons in the province during summer, which were bad for the vegetables, so the city has had to rely on provinces such as Shandong and Yunnan," Luo said.
Due to the price hikes in oil and transportation, the cost of transporting a truckload of vegetables from Shandong to Shenzhen increased from about 6,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan this year, which contributed to the sharp increase in vegetable prices, Luo said.
However, prices of other items, such as potatoes and garlic, have increased by about 15 percent.
Meanwhile, prices of several brands of milk, including Mengniu and Yili, have increased by about 5 to 10 percent at city supermarkets.
"We received notice of price adjustments from several dairy companies recently and we expect more brands to increase their prices in January," said a manager at Carrefour Supermarket in Futian District.
The price hikes were mainly due to a sharp increase in the price of raw milk. "Raw milk cost 2.4 yuan per kilogram at the beginning of this year, but the price is now 7.2 yuan per kilogram," the manager said.
Many dairy farmers had discarded their raw milk supplies due to the national tainted milk scandal and some had even given up breeding dairy cows, he said.
