Hanoi: prices of essential food decreasing slightly

VietNamNet Bridge – The prices of vegetables and meat are decreasing slightly and returning to their normal levels, though it is still raining and many streets are still flooded.

The pork price has decreased slightly

The owner of the meat kiosk No 7 at Thanh Cong A Market in Dong Da district, said that the pork price has decreased slightly as she can purchase from farmers at a lower price. She said that yesterday, she had to purchase meat at the price VND 300,000/100kg, higher than normal price, while the price today is just VND 200,000/100kg higher.

 

The pork price has decreased also because of the lower purchasing power. The sale prices are now hovering around VND 70-90,000/kg, while they were over VND 100,000/kg one or two days ago.

 

“The pork prices have returned to their normal levels,” said Nguyen Van Tao, the owner of the pork stall at Thuong Dinh Market in Thanh Xuan district.

 

Tao, who specializes in trading pork from Bac Giang province, said that in the last two days of the previous week, he could not purchase much meat from farmers, therefore, he had to raise the price by 20%. However, as the supplies have become abundant, the sale prices have become ‘softer’.

 

Similarly, the price of beef has decreased considerably in comparison with the days during the flood. The highest quality beef is now at VND 140-150,000/kg, down from VND 170-180,000/kg.

 

Beef sellers said that supplies have been cut short due to the bad traffic. However, the situation has become better as the water has been going down. People now don’t have to purchase much meat to store in their refrigerators.

 

The prices of vegetables have also decreased. At Bo De market in Long Bien district, a bunch of spinach is now selling at VND 5,000 instead of VND 15,000, as seen on November 2, while kohlrabi is selling at VND 3,000 a bulb instead of VND 5,000.

 

However, small business merchants have warned that the vegetable prices would increase again in a few days. The prices have decreased over the last couple of days because farmers try to pick up vegetables, which have been damaged by the flood, for sale. However, the supplies will become shorter in a few days.

 

Nguyen Thi Le, a farmer in Quoc Oai district, said that when hearing about the expensive vegetables in the inner city, she and her husband carried hundreds of kilograms of kohlrabi and cabbage to sell at the markets. Le said that much of the vegetables she has been growing had been damaged by the heavy rains. Other households in the village are facing the same problem.

 

Le believes that her village will not have anymore vegetables to sell after 10 days. The greatest worry is that people may have no vegetables available on Tet. It will take four months to grow a new crop of cabbage and two months to get kohlrabi.

 

The vegetable fields, which provide vegetables to Hanoi like in Dong Anh, Hoai Duc, Dan Phuong and Long Bien districts, are still under water. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, has said that all the vegetable growing areas have been severely flooded, suggesting that Hanoi should contact provinces further away to get vegetables.

 

Nguyen Nga – Ha Yen

Update from: http://english.vietnamnet.vn//biz/2008/11/811861/