The weather is warming up and garlic from Yunnan is gradually entering the market. The price of this recently harvested garlic is almost twice the price of fresh garlic around this time last year. Will this year's price of garlic remain higher than last year? How will the price of garlic develop when additional supplies from production areas in Shandong, Henan, and Jiangsu enter the market?
Some traders stated that fewer farmers produce garlic because many of them suffered losses last year. The price will therefore increase this year. He Tan, market data analyst at Zhuochuang Information, explained that market expectations in 2019 are the main reason for the price increase. The overall surface area devoted to garlic plantation declined by 25% between 2018 and 2019. This means that the production volume will likely decline and this expectation keeps the price high. However, the volume of garlic entered into storage in 2018 was rather high. The price of garlic from refrigerated storage has been relatively low in the last five years. The market price frequently reaches a low point and then rebounds. It is difficult for the price to fall even lower in the next few years.
At the end of April there is still a small volume of garlic in refrigerated storage. The supply volume of fresh garlic is still relatively small and does not affect the market conditions yet. That is the main reason why the price of garlic did not significantly drop. However, when fresh garlic enters the market in large volumes in May, the price will naturally fall. Still, the price is not likely to fall below the level of last year.
Source: cnr.cn