China farm produce prices fall

Beijing, April 11 (IANS) The prices of China's farm produce fell for a third straight week on increased supplies, the commerce ministry said Tuesday.

The wholesale price of 18 types of vegetables dropped 5.4 percent during the week of April 2-8, and the pace of decrease accelerated 4.1 percentage points from the previous week, the ministry said in a statement.

Prices of rapes, lettuces and cucumbers slid 16.9 percent, 16.5 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively, Xinhua reported.

Pork meat prices have decreased for 10 consecutive weeks, falling 1.2 percent last week and 12.5 percent cumulatively since late January.

However, edible oil prices edged up last week as import prices of soybean rose on lower output concerns. Colza oil prices increased 0.3 percent while soybean oil prices rose 0.2 percent. Peanut oil prices edged 0.1 percent higher.

Food prices have a one-third weighting in the calculation of China's consumer price index (CPI), the major gauge of inflation. China's CPI rebounded to 3.6 percent in March, after easing to a 20-month low of 3.2 percent in February.

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