Abundant supplies push farm produce prices down

Prices of major agricultural products fell last week due to abundant supplies, the Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

The wholesale price of 18 staple vegetables dropped 3.6 percent week on week, with prices of tomatoes, eggplants and cucumbers retreating 13.7 percent, 9.1 percent and 9 percent, respectively, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Vegetable prices in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai dropped by 13.9 percent, 7.8 percent and 1.5 percent last week, respectively, according to the statement.

Egg prices dipped 0.5 percent last week and were down 9.7 percent cumulatively from the start of the year.

Pork prices dropped 0.2 percent, while fish prices continued to rise last week, gaining 2.1 percent cumulatively in the last four weeks, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, the statement said producer prices fell for the fourth consecutive week last week, with prices of rubber and crude oil falling 2.8 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.

The growth of China's consumer price index (CPI) slowed to 3.4 percent in April, slightly down from 3.6 percent in March.

Food prices, which account for nearly one-third of the weighting in the calculation of China's CPI, increased 7 percent last month from one year earlier.