High strawberry prices in China this season

Climatic factors have led to delays in this year’s strawberry harvest across many regions of China, resulting in a significant surge in market prices of nearly 40%. According to data from China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, as of Dec. 9, the average nationwide wholesale price of strawberries had risen to 33.83 Chinese yuan ($4.64) per kilogram, representing a 39.04% year-on-year increase. Wholesale strawberry prices vary enormously across regions. Data from Dec. 10 show that prices in major wholesale markets ranged from a maximum of 56 yuan ($7.69) per kilogram to a minimum of just 3.07 yuan ($0.42) per kilogram, a gap of 52.93 yuan ($7.27). For instance, in a wholesale fruit market in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, strawberries were priced at 50 yuan ($6.87) per kilogram, whereas in an agricultural market in Tengzhou, a city in southern Shandong province, the price was just 4 yuan ($0.55) per kilogram. In supermarkets, strawberry prices tend to be relatively high and ...