(Ecns.cn)--Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on June 14 showed that China's consumer price index (CPI) in May rose by 5.5% since the previous year, hitting a 34-month high. Not only consumers, but sellers and producers have also been seriously affected by this.
Since 2007, Xinhua News Agency has hired locals in towns and cities to track and record prices of about 50 agricultural products, including pork and milk, the best indicators of the influence of CPI fluctuations on people's lives.
Too expensive to buy
Data collectors in Guangdong Province found that residents are spending 10% more than last year on vegetables, meat, and fruit. To save money, most consumers have moved to peddlers, cheap supermarkets, and markets in suburbs to buy greens.
Sui Guohui, a data collector in Guangzhou, Guangdong, has seen a sharp increase of buyers in unregulated markets. The Haizhu Market used to be crowded with visitors, but have now recently been deserted it due to its skyrocketing vegetable prices, said Sui.
"Garlic in Haizhu is 5 yuan per kilo in big supermarkets, but only 3.5 yuan at the stalls on a nearby alleyway," noted Sui, adding that the peddlers do not pay taxes or rent, and thus can sell their products at a lower price.
"But the alleyway has now been dirtied by sewage and rotten vegetables," continued Sui, "and residents living there are suffering from the yelling on the street. People's quality of life is, in fact, deteriorating."
The legitimate cheap supermarkets are no better, where insufficient supplies have always left many of its clients empty-handed. "The supermarket opens at 8:20 am every day. However, vegetables are quickly snapped up before 9:00 am," said data collector Mao Yuanhong in Zhanjiang, Guangdong.
Too expensive to sell
With such a price hike, many thought that greengrocers must have made tidy profits; but, this has not been the case.
With store rents rising sharply, many store owners have turned to street vendors.
Wang Weihui, a store keeper in the Haojun Market, told reporters that the rent has been raised several times since 2010. Though sellers had complained a lot, the rent still rose again by 10% this June.
Li Xiuping, a data collector in Yunfu, Guangdong, said that some store keepers could not afford their rent and finally joined the hawkers, selling pork by pedicabs.
Some others who found it hard to survive selling greens chose to change their profession. A woman just took a babysitting job this year with a monthly salary of 1,200 yuan. "I couldn't make more than 2,000 from selling vegetables anyway," she said.
Too expensive to farm
The meat processing plants between the breeders and sellers have made huge profits by marking up the processed pork by 30%, resulting in high pork prices on the market, according to He Chunjing, a breeder.
Wang Yuanhua, another breeder, suggested that processing by intermediaries should be cancelled to let breeders do businesses directly with sellers.
"The government should change their policies from subsidizing sows to compensating for the medical expenses of treating sick pigs," said He.
"The breeders are mostly afraid their pigs will get infected with swine fever, since they have to pay for medicine treatments or disposal of dead pigs," he added, "while the high risks have dampened their enthusiasm."
