Food inflation

[Brian US]

I know most prices in China are going up, but I'm a little curious about a few everyday foods that have shot up in the past year. I use to get eggs for about 50 Chinese cents each and now I'm lucky to find them for one kuai. This change seemed to happen in just a few months along with apple prices.

I heard the price of garlic went up something like 600% due to speculation, but anyone know why these select foods are doubling?

Just read this article, but not sure if transportation costs can be a main contributor when compared to other goods.

[gougou]

This article in the Beijinger makes it appear as not only being "a few" food items, but rather large-scale inflation - including McDonald's :o

[xiaoxiaocao]

Funny you mention the price of garlic. Where I am raw garlic sells for 8 kuai/jin, yet I can buy pickled whole garlic （糖蒜 tang suan) for only 7 kuai/jin :blink: don't understand it!

[gougou]

Maybe because of the higher water content?

[jbradfor]

Or because raw garlic has a shorter shelf-life / harder to store than does pickled?

[Brian US]

Time to invest in those fake egg making kits.

[luozhen]

It is a combination of bad weather, droughts and money printing. The Chinese central bank, along with the rest of the world's central banks, have created trillions of dollars worth of money. No one cares when stock prices and home prices go up, but it can also cause food, energy, clothing, etc. to rise in price. Add in some bad harvests and it makes for large price increases.

[anonymoose]

No one cares when stock prices and home prices go up

On the contrary, most people care when home prices go up, in China at least, where the majority of people are struggling to buy a home. Of course, the people in power, who own half of the homes and the stocks don't care.

In 2007 in Shanghai, people were complaining that home prices had reached 20000 Yuan per square metre in some places. Now you'll be lucky to find anything under 20000 Yuan. Finding even 50000 Yuan per square metre is not uncommon in central locations.