Commentary

China Watch

Forum Digests

Columnists

Letters

Feeling the pinch of sagging prices

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-26 07:45

The extremely cheap prices of farm products may dampen the enthusiasm of farmers, says an article on the website www.rednet.cn. The following is an except:

After farmer Wu Hongchang earned just 47 yuan by selling 1,500 jin of tangerines, he sighed, saying he would dump the remaining tangerines he kept at home before they turn rotten. Previously, he had already thrown away 400 jin.

This year, tangerine growers have welcomed a harvest season but lower prices. What's more, nearly all farm produce, except grains, have seen a large decline in prices this year, especially vegetables and fruits.

The record low prices of produce may remain for a while yet, resulting in an unprecedented backlog of unsold farm products.

Meanwhile, the prices of various types of agricultural materials are still expensive and the investment in the agricultural field is still large, leading to the high costs of farm products. Exorbitant costs and low sales prices will heavily dampen the enthusiasm of farmers in engaging themselves in farm work.

As the financial crisis has hit China, rural migrant workers have been massively laid off by urban employers. And their peers back in the countryside are losing money in growing farm products. It is becoming a new dilemma for China's farmers.

(China Daily 02/26/2009 page8)