Rains drive up China's farm produce prices

BEIJING - China's farm produce prices continued to climb last week as frequent rains in the country curtailed supplies, official data showed Tuesday.

The wholesale prices of 18 types of vegetables monitored in 36 cities went up 3.5 percent, with the prices of tomatoes up 17.6 percent, green beans up 12.8 percent and lettuce up 11.9 percent, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.

Last week, the retail price of eggs rebounded after decreasing for five consecutive weeks, up 0.7 percent from the previous week but still down 5.4 percent from the same period last year.

The price of pork, a staple meat in China, dropped 0.4 percent from a week earlier, the ministry said.

Food prices account for a nearly one-third of the prices used to calculate China's consumer price index, which eased to 2.2 percent in June, its lowest level since January 2010.