As the weather warms, vegetable prices can be expected to fall.


　　 Our reporter Huang Junyi

　　Monitoring data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs showed that the wholesale price 200 index of "vegetable basket" products was 136.53 on March 21, down 0.65 points from last Friday.

The average price of 28 kinds of vegetables under monitoring was 5.69 yuan/kg, up 0.2% from last Friday.

　　Last week, vegetable prices in the Beijing market continued to rise.

On March 18, the weighted average price of vegetables in Beijing Xinfadi Agricultural Products Wholesale Market was 4.33 yuan/kg, up 6.39% from 4.07 yuan/kg last week (March 11).

"This trend is significantly different from the same period in previous years. Under normal circumstances, the highest point of vegetable prices in Beijing generally occurs around the Spring Festival. After the Spring Festival, vegetable prices basically enter the seasonal decline range." Beijing Xinfa Liu Tong, manager of the statistics department of the local agricultural product wholesale market, said.

　　This spring, the national vegetable prices continued to fluctuate at a high level. Zhang Jing, chief analyst of the vegetable market analysis and early warning team of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, believes that it is affected by multiple factors.

The southern production area suffered a cold wave in the early stage, and some vegetables suffered from freezing damage, resulting in a slight reduction in production, which made the supply of some varieties tighten in the near future.

In the first week of March, the average weekly price of 28 kinds of vegetables under monitoring was 5.72 yuan per kilogram, an increase of 2.5% month-on-month and a year-on-year increase of 7.3%.

In terms of varieties, the prices of 18 kinds of vegetables increased, 1 kind remained unchanged, and 9 kinds decreased. Among them, the prices of cauliflower and green pepper increased significantly, up 13.1% and 10.5% month-on-month respectively.

In the second week of March, the average price fell to 5.71 yuan per kilogram, down 0.2% month-on-month and 7.7% higher than the same period last year.

In terms of varieties, there are 14 varieties of rising and falling varieties, among which green onions, green peppers and winter melons have increased significantly, up 12.4%, 11.2% and 10.5% respectively month-on-month.

The biggest drop was spinach, down 14.6% month-on-month, mainly because the spinach sold in the northern market is mainly from Shandong Linyi, Liaocheng and Hebei Hengshui, Handan and other places, while the southern market is mainly fresh vegetables from local real estate. The weather is fine, the temperature rises rapidly, the growth of fast-growing leafy vegetables is accelerated, and the price has dropped.

In the third week of March, the average price remained stable and declined at 5.70 yuan per kilogram, down 0.2% month-on-month and 10.7% higher than the same period last year.

　　The fall in vegetable prices in March was significantly slower than that of the same period of previous years, and the year-on-year continued high, mainly due to the superposition of several unfavorable factors: First, the abnormal weather affected the normal supply of vegetables.

In the cold wave weather in early February, vegetables in some southern production areas were frozen, the output of some varieties of vegetables declined, the delisting period of some vegetables was earlier, and the listing period of some vegetables was delayed, which caused a break in the supply chain connection. This phenomenon occurred from late February to March. It was more obvious in the first half of the year.

Second, the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in many places has had a greater impact on vegetable harvesting and transportation. In some production areas, vegetable field harvesting, stubble planting, and circulation have been disrupted to varying degrees.

The third is the rebound in freight prices, including the rise in gasoline and diesel prices, and the poor flow of drivers with stars under the influence of the epidemic, all of which have increased transportation costs.

　　For the market outlook, Zhang Jing believes that vegetable prices will slowly decline.

From the perspective of supply, as the temperature rises, the market volume of vegetables in northern facilities has increased, and vegetables in the open field in the south have ended their harvesting and entered the stubble transition period. The overall supply and variety of vegetables has increased.

In terms of cost, due to the rising prices of gasoline, diesel and agricultural materials, and the continuation of the unfavorable weather in the south in February, the costs of vegetable transportation, heat preservation and antifreeze, and pest control have all increased. The prices of some vegetables in winter and spring will remain high; the prices of some vegetables in spring may rebound, especially in spring in the Yangtze River Basin and south of the region, such as eggplants, melons, beans and other warm-loving vegetables. And some fast-growing leafy vegetables and cold-loving cruciferous leafy vegetables and other open field vegetables.

It is expected that the prices of most varieties will enter the seasonal decline range after April.

Huang Junyi