Guangzhou will give a monthly subsidy of 20 yuan (US$2.6) to
every low-income-earning family for the period from May to July to
help offset the higher prices of pork and other non-staple
foods.
The move is part of the city's efforts to minimize the negative
impacts of rising commodities prices, especially as they effect
low-income earners, said Chen Weiqiu, an official with the
Guangzhou municipal government's news and information
department.
The city government has also been trying to diversify the supply
channels for pork and other foods, while simultaneously combating
stockpiling by speculators and profiteers, he said.
"The price of pork in the city has been about 13 yuan per kg in
the past few days, which is down from the peak of 24 yuan per kg in
early May," he said. "But that is still unbearable to low-income
families."
He said the higher price of pork has driven up prices of other
non-staple foods, which, together with the rising prices of
vegetables, has squeezed low-income families in Guangzhou.
Sun Guoxiang, director of a price monitoring center in
Guangzhou, said the rising cost of feed and the low pork prices in
the past few years have made farmers reluctant to raise pigs.
Meanwhile, the recent outbreak of blue ear disease has directly
reduced the supply of pigs.
Sun said the poor weather in the past two weeks had eaten into
the supply of vegetables, resulting in similar price rises.
The Guangzhou Shopping Basket Pricing Center said choy sum, or
flowering Chinese cabbage, a popular vegetable in south China, is
selling for 6 yuan per kg compared with about 3 yuan a week
ago.
Prices of other vegetables have grown by 20 percent to 50
percent since last week.
Sun was not optimistic that vegetable prices would return to
normal in the coming month, saying summer is a rainy season in
Guangzhou and that the demand from other Pearl River Delta cities
would make a shortfall in the vegetable supply inevitable in the
coming weeks.
"It is very likely that the vegetable price will shoot up by 200
percent in the coming month," Sun said.
(China Daily June 13, 2007)