No procrastination in administrative moves

When analyzing the recent phenomenon whereby farmers suffered abnormally low purchase prices for their vegetables but urban residents did not see any significant drop in the market prices, experts and government officials all attributed the problem to "the high cost of logistics".

In a forum hosted by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) last week on commodity prices, Wang Tongsan, a research professor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, revealed that: "The cost of logistics make up a whopping 50 to 70 percent (of the final price)." Wu Xiaoqiu, a senior economist and official of the NDRC, said that the price of a farm product "is raised again and again by profit-seeking intermediate traders at different layers before reaching a high at the dinner table".

At a press conference held the following day, Fu Ziying, vice minister of commerce, also mentioned the problem with the "logistics channels" and promised that his ministry will join the Ministry of Agriculture to take moves to "reduce the number of links in the flow of farm products and let farmers get the profits from the end price of farm produce".