Days of heavy snow have pushed the price of fresh vegetables to
double or even more as supply from both inside and outside Shanghai
is affected.
At the Cao'an Road Agricultural Products Wholesale Market, one
of the city's major food markets, the wholesale price of Chinese
cabbage, the most common vegetable for the Chinese, has increased
from 0.5 yuan (6.88 US cents) to 1.5 yuan per kilogram.
"Because trucks that transport vegetables from other provinces
are blocked on the highways, the number of vegetables arriving at
the market is expected to be down by 400 tons today. If the
highways continue to be blocked, the affect will be more serious,''
said Wang Xin, manager of the vegetable department of the
market.
He said 1,400 tons of vegetables are usually traded in the
market every day.
"Vegetables from city suburbs are still arriving though the
number is limited,'' Wang added.
The Jiangqiao Food Wholesale Market has exempted all suppliers
from paying entrance fees until the Spring Festival to encourage
them to transport more vegetables to the city. The market is
storing about 1,500 tons of vegetables including potatoes, cabbages
and taros, in case of shortage.
The snow has also badly affected some farmers, however.
Some makeshift barns constructed with old bamboo have collapsed
under the heavy snow fall.
Of the 1,500-hectare vegetable fields in Nanhui District, about
five percent had suffered collapsed barns, according to Yu Yazhong,
deputy director of the Nanhui District Agricultural Commission.
"Farmers did not expect such snow, so they didn't prepare
adequately,'' Yu said. Officials said they will help farmers to
clear snow from the barns and reinforce them.
(Shanghai Daily January 29, 2008)