Earlier this year the price of Chinese garlic showed a rising trend for more than two months, and only in April did the overall price fluctuation show a downward trend. While the price fluctuation in March consisted of "20 cents rise, and 5 cent decline", the price fluctuation in April consisted of "3 cent rise, and 5 cent decline", which shows that the overwhelming price increase of March was replaced with an overall price decline in April. Now that the new harvest of Chinese garlic has begun and market supply gradually grows, the market experiences new fluctuations.
The rapid price increase in the first half of this year attracted the attention of many people in the industry, garlic farmers, peddlers and traders with storage. They all prepared for fierce competition. Market analyst He Tan pointed out that the market conditions in the first half of this year and the expectations for the rest of this year suggest that farmers may be hesitant to sell when garlic first enters the market in large volumes. Small peddlers may also try to "hoard" some of the garlic for later in the hope that the price will grow. This means that garlic trade will begin at a slow pace and the price could easily climb much higher.
Li Qian, analyst at Shandong Jinxiang Agricultural Product Distribution stated that the weather conditions were excellent for garlic production this year. Many of the garlic measures around 6 cm, and only a small proportion of garlic sprouts suffered from insect pests last winter. This will certainly influence the overall production volume of Chinese garlic this year. The volume of garlic in cold storage is rapidly selling out, and market demand remains strong. At the same time, fresh garlic enters the market in large volumes, and traders with storage eagerly purchase fresh garlic to stock their warehouses.
Source: Sannong Zhongguo