Standardize agricultural trading

The government should try to set up a sound and standardized agricultural product trading market as soon as possible to check speculation, ensure stability of prices and protect the interests of consumers and farmers.

Recently, garlic - a common staple in Chinese food - has become the target of speculative capital. Partly due to the belief that the pungent bulb can help ward off A(H1N1) influenza, garlic prices have rocketed more than 10-fold in recent months. The rush to buy has been exacerbated by profiteering businessmen in Wenzhou, a booming city in Zhejiang province. Wenzhou businessmen have long been well known for their role in pushing up real estate prices across the country. It is reported some have become millionaires because of speculation in this round of panic garlic buying.

On the surface, the latest drastic rise in garlic prices has been largely driven by some accidental factors, such as the widespread outbreak of H1NI influenza, but it fully exposes the long-standing absence in China of a scientific pricing mechanism for agricultural products. Owing to an asymmetrical information disclosure mechanism, China's agricultural products, including garlic, have long had difficulty in freeing themselves from the passive "bumper harvest-declining prices/dwindling planting acreage-flying prices" cycle, during which farmers are not in rhythm with the market.