"Ginger" sequela pushes up ginger prices

In the first half of this year, the price of ginger in China continued to rise. About 70% of the province's ginger prices have exceeded 20 yuan per kilogram. The industry believes that the price of ginger is “highly high” and related to the “toxic ginger” incident.

Shandong Lushan Agricultural Products Comprehensive Trading Market is a large-scale vegetable wholesale market. Since August, the price of ginger has risen to 16.3 yuan/kg in this market, which is more than double that in the same period of last year.

At present, about 70% of the province's ginger prices in China exceed 20 yuan per kilogram. According to the Xinhua News Agency's national agricultural and sideline products and agricultural materials price system monitoring, compared with February 20, on July 30, the average daily national price of ginger rose by 43.5%.

Ginger is an extremely important condiment for Chinese cooking. The continuing high price of ginger is causing dissatisfaction among Chinese consumers. “It is better to buy a piece of ginger than to buy a piece of meat.” In the Lotte Mart supermarket in Tengzhou City, Shandong Province, Zhang Honghai, a citizen who came to shop, complained to reporters that the supermarket’s ginger price was 24 yuan/kg on the day, while pork was only 19.8 yuan/kg.

In the eyes of people in the industry, the current “high ginger price” is related to the “toxic ginger” incident. In May 2013, some media reported that farmers used the highly toxic pesticide “Shen Nong Dan” to grow ginger, which led many consumers to dare to buy ginger. At one time, the price of ginger plummeted and farmers’ enthusiasm for planting was seriously frustrated. For example, in Shandong Laiwu, the ginger planting area in 2011 was 100,000 mu, which was reduced to 59,000 mu in 2013.

"After last year's 'Ginger and Ginger' incident, the price of the depressed ginger suffered a severe setback. Individual major producing areas have even cut down the ginger that has been planted, and the planting area continues to shrink, resulting in a substantial reduction in ginger production." Beijing Xinfa Zhang Yuxi, general manager of the vegetable wholesale market, said.

Shouguang Vegetable Index Center analyst Wang Hao believes that due to the spring ginger planting, autumn harvest, is currently in the ginger "green and yellow" period, the ginger prices are relatively high at this time of year.

"After the 'toxic ginger' incident, ginger production has decreased by nearly 20%, coupled with the peasants' reluctance to sell goods and the accumulation of ginger in market channels, which has exacerbated the imbalance in supply and demand in the market and increased the price of ginger." CIC Advisor Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and Fishery Song Jiening, a researcher, predicts that after the market for fresh ginger is listed, market conditions are expected to ease.