But Shanghai's consumers witnessed a slight drop in food prices, with the cost of some major vegetables dropping by 5 percent.

Figures released by the Beijing Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday indicate that Beijing's consumer price index (CPI) on food increased in December, seeing an end to the dropping trend that lasted for the first 11 months of 2002.

The bureau attributed the increase mainly to the rise in the price of fresh vegetables, which rose 17.5 percent over the previous month.

The upcoming Lunar New Year festival has always meant brisk sales for Beijing's traders of vegetables, meat and other farm produce, and this year is no exception.

Most of the fresh fruit and vegetables sold at Beijing markets, which usually comes from suburban greenhouses, has failed to appear as a result of the recent cold weather.

The crop is likely to appear on market stalls a month later, missing the peak sales period of the Spring Festival.

Experts predicted that the amount of vegetables in the Beijing market will fall this month compared with December 2001 and the same period last year.

But shoppers need not fear, as Beijing's market stalls will still be full of a wide variety of vegetables grown in the south of the country.

But prices will remain high. Take dabaicai or Chinese cabbage, a kind of traditional winter vegetable, as an example.

A total of 21,000 tons of dabaicai was available in the market last December, 29.6 percent less than the amount in the same period of the previous year.

And the monthly average price is nearly three times that in December 2001, the highest price in the 11 years.

Insiders pointed out that though the price keeps on soaring, this doesn't make much difference to Beijingers, who can afford it, thanks to their rising standard of living.

"It's quite normal to experience a price rise when the Spring Festival is drawing close. I have prepared myself to accept the higher price, as long as it's not too much" said Cui, a Beijing housewife.

Meanwhile, major farm products at Shanghai markets witnessed a slight price cut although the city's temperature once fell below zero degree earlier this week.

Prices of eggs, fish and meat remained stable and the price of major vegetables even dropped 5 percent on average this week compared with the level two weeks ago, according to the Shanghai Farm Products Wholesale Centre.

A staff member at the centre said the price stability was a result of "favourable" vegetable growth in the city's suburbs.

More than 80 per cent of farmers in the city's suburban Fengxian and Jinshan districts - two major vegetable suppliers for the urban market - had established sheds for their vegetables, said Jiang Xiaoping, the centre's distribution director.

But Jiang also predicted the price of meat and vegetables will go up slightly as the Spring Festival draws near, along with a continually increasing demand.

The price of eggs in Shanghai will remain stable as a result of good supplies.

(China Daily January 10, 2003)