The price of scallions is rising fast, the imbalance of supply and demand is the main reason
Our reporter Huang Junyi
Recently, the price of green onions has risen sharply, which has caused widespread concern among consumers.
"Green onions look inconspicuous, but they are important seasoning vegetables. This time the price of green onions has risen rapidly. In some regional retail markets, the price of onions can double in just a few days." Chief Analyst of the Vegetable Market Analysis and Early Warning Team of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Kong Fantao said.
Judging from the monthly average wholesale prices of 28 wholesale markets across the country, in August, the price of green onions was 3.18 yuan/kg, and the price fluctuations were relatively stable.
In September, the price of green onions was 3.66 yuan/kg, up 15.1% month-on-month and 21.2% year-on-year.
In October, the price of green onions was 3.99 yuan/kg, up 9.0% month-on-month and 51.1% year-on-year, setting a new high for the same period in the past 12 years.
Why has the price of onion accelerated recently?
Kong Fantao believes that there are three main reasons: First, this year's green onion planting area has been reduced, and the market supply is tight.
Generally speaking, the planting area of vegetables in the current season is often determined by the price of the previous season.
When the price of a certain variety was high in the previous season, the planting area in the current season will increase and the price will fall.
Conversely, the area planted in the current season will decrease and prices will rise.
Since reaching 3.84 yuan/kg in July last year, the price of green onions has fallen all the way. It was not until February this year that it rebounded to 3.66 yuan/kg, and then continued to decline, which resulted in a significant reduction in the area of green onions this year.
Second, the rains have generally increased this year, suppressing the yield of green onions.
Welsh onions have the biological characteristics of being drought-tolerant and not waterlogging-tolerant. Onion leaves can reduce water evaporation, retain water and resist drought.
This year's spring onion growing season, taking the period from June to August as an example, the national average precipitation is 373.0 mm, 14.7% more than the same period in normal years. This is the most common period since 1961 and second only to 1998.
When there is more rain, it is easy to cause retting and rotten roots, which reduces the yield of green onions.
Third, vegetable prices are generally high this year, which has driven up the price of green onions.
In February of this year, affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, vegetable planting, seedling cultivation and planting were affected to a certain extent. The vegetable planting area in cold and cold areas decreased overall year-on-year, causing vegetable prices to hit a record high in nearly 10 years.
In summer, the southern torrential rain has a wide range, heavy rainfall, and strong extremes. The rainfall in many places has broken historical records, and vegetable crops have been seriously affected.
In addition, in late June, severe convective weather such as hail in the main summer vegetable production areas in northern China, such as Hebei and Shandong, had a staged adverse impact on the production and supply of open-field vegetables in summer.
From January to October, the average price of 28 main vegetables was 4.66 yuan/kg, which has been running at a high level on the whole, driving the price of green onions to rise.
Zhang Jing, an associate researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Information of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that the demand for small vegetables such as green onions is relatively stable and requires a balanced supply throughout the year. However, the supply is more affected by factors such as planting area, climate and weather, product substitution, production area conversion, and market operations. Big.
Once the total supply and total demand are out of balance, it will be difficult to sell and the price will fall, or the supply will exceed demand and the price will rise.
In recent years, the prices of agricultural products such as ginger and garlic have soared and fallen sharply.
Zhang Jing suggested that growers arrange production rationally and not blindly follow suit.
Huang Junyi