Regional floods cut supply; rates likely to stay high until after festive period
Jessica Li Straits Times 15 Nov 10;
RECENT floods have devastated vegetable crops in neighbouring major exporting countries Malaysia and Thailand, leading to higher prices in Singapore.
Prices of many vegetables - from Thai asparagus to Malaysian tomatoes - have been inching up over the past month, and importers warn that prices are likely to stay high as demand strengthens over the Christmas and Chinese New Year periods.
The high prices now are an anomaly, they say. Typically, prices start to rise only late next month, when demand increases during the festive season.
At Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, some vegetables now cost twice as much as they did just a month ago.
Mr Gary Ong, 44, who owns Vat Thoa Vegetables Wholesaler, a stall there, said the supply of some vegetables, such as long beans, brinjal and tomatoes, has been severely affected. These vegetables cannot survive in waterlogged areas.
'Suppliers have told us that bad weather and flooding have affected crops. Vegetables such as kang kong and cai xin are less affected because they can survive in water,' he said.
Mr Desmond Lim, 28, Lim Thiam Chwee Food Supplier's marketing manager, said the procurement cost of vegetables has almost doubled. He is now selling Malaysian long beans at $3 per kg, up from $1.80 a month ago.
Singapore imported 467,937 tonnes of vegetables last year. Vegetables from Malaysia and Thailand account for about half of the imports.
Severe flooding in Thailand has left 181 people dead over the past month and affected 7.8 million people, mainly in the north-east and south of the country.
In northern Malaysia, a few deaths were reported, and thousands of people have been displaced.
While wholesale prices have shot up, the price increase is - for now - less severe at wet markets and supermarkets.
Vendors at wet markets, who are afraid to lose out to supermarkets, are absorbing a portion of the price hikes.
Supermarkets, on the other hand, say they import vegetables not just from Malaysia and Thailand, but from other countries like China as well.
Over at a wet market in Yew Tee, vegetable seller Lee Chin Yiek, 34, said he would be increasing prices, but not by as much as the wholesalers.
At his stall, Malaysian cucumbers now cost $1.80 per kg, up from $1.20 a month ago. He now pays $1.20 per kg for them, compared with 70 cents earlier.
At the wet market in Ghim Moh Road, vegetable seller Angela Teo, 49, now charges $2.30 for a packet of asparagus, 50 cents more than the price a month ago. The prices of Thai yams and limes have also gone up, she said.
Another vegetable seller is taking a different tack. Mr Lee Ah Chuy, 60, who has been operating out of the Ghim Moh market for about 30 years, said: 'We just tie the vegetables in smaller bundles. It is better than increasing prices. If we do that, customers may not come back.'
At supermarkets such as FairPrice, Sheng Siong, Cold Storage and Jasons Market Place, prices of some vegetable varieties have gone up by as much as 20 per cent over the past two months.
At FairPrice, the prices of vegetables such as tomatoes and round brinjal from Malaysia, and asparagus and chilli padi from Thailand, have been raised. These varieties make up a small fraction of the 250 vegetable varieties the chain carries, an executive said.
Mr Tng Ah Yiam, FairPrice's managing director of group purchasing and merchandising, said the chain has a policy of diversified sourcing and gets its vegetables from around the world.
At Cold Storage and Jasons, which enter into contracts with vegetable farmers overseas, less than 5 per cent of the 500 types of vegetables they carry cost more. Those that do include Chinese parsley, tomatoes and Thai asparagus.
A spokesman for the Dairy Farm group, which owns the Cold Storage and Jasons Market Place chains, said prices are expected to stay high over the next three months because of the rainy season and high local demand during the festive period.
Mr Tan Chin Hian, vice-chairman of the Singapore Fruits and Vegetables Importers and Exporters Association, agreed.
Prices, he said, would probably stay high until after Chinese New Year in February. 'Usually prices will go up only in late December and January. This time, the increases are coming earlier because of all the bad weather,' he said.
Rising prices have forced some consumers to change their eating habits.
Retiree K.L. Lim, 80, is switching to eating cheaper leafy vegetables such as Chinese spinach and kang kong as their prices have not gone up by as much.
He now pays $6 for a kilogram of vegetables at the wet market, up from less than $5 a month ago.
Housewife Lee Zhi En, 36, said there would be a slightly smaller serving of vegetables for the family. The mother of two, whose husband is a taxi driver, said: 'Every cent counts, so we will eat a little less for a while.'
