Hot times mean hotter prices

A persistent heat wave over East and South China is killing vegetables and pushing food prices higher but will not cause dramatic inflation, economists said.

"About 70 percent of the vegetables in our farm have withered because of the high temperatures. We have had to suspend supplying vegetables to more than half of our customers from last week," said Liu Guiyu, manager of Big Water Buffalo, a company that sells organic vegetables through membership services based in Changzhou, in East China's Jiangsu province.

The output of the company amounts to 3,000 kilograms on average every month, but it will drop to 1,500 kg this month because the area is suffering temperatures as high as 40 C.