Vegetable prices rose 53 percent last month compared to January due to the cold winter, said a Shanghai Statistics Bureau report.

Prices of seafood, poultry and meat products also rose to varying degrees.

Experts said most food prices will drop to normal levels in the next few weeks.

According to the report, fresh vegetables went up 31.6 percent year-on-year last month, in addition to a big rise in January.

The main reason for the increase was the weather. A cold, wet winter in the Yangtze River Delta - including five snow falls - reduced crop yields about 40 percent, said Zhang Sirong, director of the Shanghai Vegetable Office.

"Since neighboring provinces were also affected by the abnormal weather and couldn't provide vegetables to the Shanghai market, supplies have been reduced," he said.

In addition to the inclement weather, more than 5,000 hectares of land used to grow vegetables were switched over to grow grain this year.

The shanghai Agricultural Commission said it started organizing farmers to grow more vegetables in late February.

"Since a period of time is needed for vegetables to grow, prices will gradually drop to normal levels," Zhang said.

The food price increase of other items was due to booming consumption during the Spring Festival.

The report said seafood prices rose 17.2 percent in February from the previous month. The increase was most notable among shrimps and hairy crabs, which rose 28.3 percent and 49.5 percent respectively.

One analyst said the increase was expected.

"On one hand, higher demand during the holiday made prices jump. On the other hand, fish and shrimps are in an incubation period, so the supply has shrunk," said an analyst surnamed Cen at the city's fishery office. "Prices will drop in April as supplies increase."

The price of pork and beef remained stable. Both increased slightly at 1.1 percent and 2.9 percent respectively last month compared to January. Poultry jumped 10 percent, according to the statistics bureau's report.

(Shanghai Daily March 29, 2005)