Vegetable prices fall for 7th week

BEIJING - Vegetable prices have fallen for seven consecutive weeks due to abundant supplies, dropping 1.7 percent last week, Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said Tuesday.

Pork prices rebounded recently, up 0.7 percent last week, after falling for several months, as the country's pork stockpiling policy helped boost market demand, Shen said at a regular briefing.

China started stockpiling frozen pork in April to help stabilize prices and stem losses by pig producers.

Due to booming demand, shrinking supplies and climbing production costs, prices of edible oil and aquatic products rose slightly last week. Retail prices of peanut oil increased 0.3 percent week-on-week, while the wholesale prices of aquatic products gained 0.7 percent.

Shen said prices of garlic and eggs have begun falling. "The ministry has always attached great importance to the dramatic fluctuations of farm produce prices, and will try to solve the boom-bust problem in agriculture as soon as possible," he added.