Egg prices continue to drop, reaching the lowest level since August 2010. Photo by Yangcheng Evening News reporter He Ben. Egg prices surged last year, once nearing a high of 11 yuan per kilogram. After this year's Spring Festival, egg prices continued to fall. Yesterday, the Yangcheng Evening News learned from the Municipal Price Bureau that recently egg prices have continued to decline, reaching their lowest point since August 2010, with an average city-wide price of 8.88 yuan per kilogram. In some markets, egg prices have even dropped to as low as 7.2 yuan per kilogram.
Monitoring data from the Price Monitoring Center of the Municipal Price Bureau shows that due to a significant decrease in wholesale prices, retail prices for eggs in some farmers' markets fell slightly last week, with an average city-wide price of 8.88 yuan per kilogram, down 3.48% from the previous week. The rate of decline has slowed, and prices have again hit their lowest point since August 2010. In Shapai Market, egg prices were as low as 7.2 yuan per kilogram, nearly 4 yuan cheaper per kilogram than at their peak in the middle of last year.
Similarly, pork prices have also decreased. According to monitoring, affected by weak demand, live hog prices continued to fall slightly last week, with an average price of 16.4 yuan per kilogram at slaughterhouses, a slight decrease of 0.3 yuan per kilogram from the previous week. Retail prices for pork and beef continued to decline, with the rate of decline slowing. The retail average prices for lean meat, fatty meat, spareribs, and fresh beef were 36.8 yuan, 30.67 yuan, 44.35 yuan, and 59 yuan per kilogram respectively, decreasing by 1.37%, 0.97%, 0.36%, and 1.19%.
In addition, last week the comprehensive retail average price for 32 main types of vegetables was 6.15 yuan per kilogram, a slight increase of 0.33% compared to the previous period, remaining basically stable. With the recent large return flow of students from various colleges and universities and migrant workers, vegetable demand has increased significantly, and the overall supply of vegetables has clearly increased. For example, the daily average trading volume of vegetables at the Jiangnan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market was nearly 6,900 tons, an increase of nearly 500 tons compared to the previous week. The entire market presented a prosperous situation of both supply and sales. Prices for major varieties of vegetables showed mixed trends.
Among them, due to relatively lower temperatures earlier which slowed growth and reduced supply, coupled with increased demand, prices for local vegetables stabilized after falling, with some varieties even slightly increasing. For instance, the retail average prices for local choi sum, short-stemmed Chinese cabbage, local celery, and cauliflower were 6.02 yuan, 7.04 yuan, 7.24 yuan, and 4.78 yuan per kilogram respectively, increasing slightly by 6.55%, 12.58%, 5.54%, and 19.5%. Due to increased supply and decreased wholesale prices, some gourd and legume vegetables saw larger drops in retail prices. These include cucumber, carrots, radishes, bell peppers, and green chili peppers, with retail average prices of 6.87 yuan, 3.89 yuan, 2.91 yuan, 9.01 yuan, and 8.61 yuan per kilogram respectively, decreasing by 7.91%, 9.32%, and 11%.