The recent tragic death of a cabbage farmer in Shandong Province startled the nation, demanding that the government make more efforts to protect farmers' interests as well as to straighten out the pricing mechanism for vegetables.
On April 16, 39-year-old Han Jin hanged himself due to the plunging prices of cabbage, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Because of low prices, many farmers have decided to throw away unsalable vegetables that ripened later than usual in northern China, causing a temporary oversupply in a market already saturated with vegetables from the south.
Vegetable prices dropped by 9.8 percent on average last week and by 16.2 percent over the past three weeks, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.
At the same time, the falling prices of vegetables bring no profits to consumers in cities. Many people dwelling in urban areas complained that the prices of vegetables were high, owing to continuous growth of the consumer price index, which rose by 5.4 percent in March over the same period of last year.
Distribution is the key to the problem. The prices of vegetables are usually raised 10 to 20 times from a rural garden to an urban market thanks to the high cost of logistics.
In Han's case, the cabbage was sold for less than 0.2 yuan per kilogram, while it cost 1 yuan to grow. But the retail prices hit 3 yuan in a vegetable market in Beijing over the weekend. Farmers have to sell the vegetables quickly as they do not remain fresh for long.
Another factor is that individual farmers cannot see the whole picture of supply. They grow vegetables based only on their personal experience: The higher prices of cabbage last year persuaded more farmers to grow the same vegetable this year.
The lack of transparency in the pricing mechanism also provides the opportunity for speculation. Last year, many speculators made money by intentionally pushing up the prices of garlic and mung beans.
To deal with the problem, governments at all levels have taken measures to encourage more buyers, such as supermarkets, schools and company canteens, to engage in a purchasing spree. With the aim of decreasing the distribution costs, the Beijing municipal government has arranged for mobile vehicles to sell vegetables in communities.
In addition, the ministries of commerce and agriculture have decided to dispatch work panels to relieve the oversupply of vegetables. They also ordered relevant departments to speed up the cooperation between farmers and vegetable dealers, to release more information between production and sales and to set up an insurance system for farmers who grow vegetables.
It seems that all the above-mentioned measures are not the fundamental method to tackle the "vegetable basket" problem, which influences the lives of everybody.
When mapping out new policies, the government needs to balance inflation and demand to increase farmers' income. When the vegetable prices are low, priorities should be given to the protection of interests of farmers; when the prices are high, measures should be taken to protect the interests of low-income groups in the cities.
