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Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
Downtown shoppers need wet markets, not just showy malls
By Ni Tao |
January 21, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TO eat or not to eat, that is the question.
At the canteen in our office building, my colleagues and I usually banter while tucking into our lunch.
My editor makes it his mission to commit young "carnivores" to a healthy diet comprised of more vegetables than the diced potatoes they have ordered.
His veggie gospel worked, as a few devoted meat-eaters have begun to top their platters with more greens.
But it takes a while to see if his sermon can survive an encounter with the grim reality - the surge in vegetable prices since late last year will challenge the faith of the newly converted.
So marked is the price ascent that Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng spoke at length about the issue on Tuesday at the annual convening of the city's top legislature and political advisory body. Shanghai will strive to reduce the prices of daily necessities, food in particular, to affordable levels, Han said, adding that this will be a top priority for the government.
According to Han, this requires existing vegetable farms to be expanded and more subsidies and favorable policies extended to wet markets, where most locals buy their groceries.
Lately the wet market has become a frontline in the battle against inflation. And the odds of winning the battle depend as much on sound economics as on government resolve, lawmakers suggested. Zhu Jianguo, a political adviser, yesterday proposed that wet markets scrap stall fees to help lower food prices.
The city's wet markets used to be entirely government-run, but as of 1997, 80 percent of them had been privatized in the misguided belief that bread-and-butter issues should be left to the market.
A result of this misinformed decision is that privately owned wet markets can collect vendors' fees and other administrative "overhead" from vegetable stands as they please. Hawkers respond by raising the prices of produce.
Feeling the pinch
This compounds the misery as food prices soar in times of heightened inflation pressure, leaving many to feel the pinch.
But taking back control of private wet markets is not an option, as it would require 20 billion-30 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion-US$4.5 billion) - way higher than the government can afford, local lawmaker Zheng Huiqiang was quoted as saying in yesterday's Xinming Evening News.
Of course, the government can weigh incentives such as tax breaks and more subsidies to wet market operators, be they public or private, but why not abolish the administrative fees altogether?
It makes no economic sense to subsidize wet market operators that already overcharge for their services. Of course, factors other than stall fees are at play in the recent food price increases, for instance, the road tolls levied on trucks carrying vegetables from agricultural provinces into the city.
The Wenhui Daily reported on December 21, after tracking the journey of tomatoes from Shouguang, Shandong Province - a major grower - to Shanghai, that tomatoes freshly picked from local farms cost 1.85 yuan a kilogram.
At a Shanghai wet market their price jumped to 3 yuan a kilogram.
Yet truck drivers complained that they lost money on the delivery trips. So if they didn't make money, who did? We may never know the real beneficiaries of this much-touted division of labor, perhaps it is because there are no beneficiaries at all.
Rejecting costly and high-carbon transport of vegetables and fruit over long distances, hard-nosed environmentalists consume produce only grown locally.
Shanghai's government heeded this wisdom in the wake of the food price crisis. It encourages local vegetable farmers to grow more, and shelters them under an insurance scheme that would indemnify them against any loss should prices drop below costs.
But it can do more. As Mayor Han pointed out in his speech, the locations of wet markets should be "scientifically chosen." He didn't elaborate.
It doesn't take rocket science to figure out where to build a new wet market. The principle is, of course, the closer to home, the better. Alas, this principle has so far been an afterthought when it gets in the way of vanity projects.
So if residents living close to Nanjing Road W. - now largely given over to super luxury brands only - wake up one day to find they have a wet market as their new neighbor, we should indeed be surprised, because that will signal true determination to tackle the wet market problem.
At the canteen in our office building, my colleagues and I usually banter while tucking into our lunch.
My editor makes it his mission to commit young "carnivores" to a healthy diet comprised of more vegetables than the diced potatoes they have ordered.
His veggie gospel worked, as a few devoted meat-eaters have begun to top their platters with more greens.
But it takes a while to see if his sermon can survive an encounter with the grim reality - the surge in vegetable prices since late last year will challenge the faith of the newly converted.
So marked is the price ascent that Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng spoke at length about the issue on Tuesday at the annual convening of the city's top legislature and political advisory body. Shanghai will strive to reduce the prices of daily necessities, food in particular, to affordable levels, Han said, adding that this will be a top priority for the government.
According to Han, this requires existing vegetable farms to be expanded and more subsidies and favorable policies extended to wet markets, where most locals buy their groceries.
Lately the wet market has become a frontline in the battle against inflation. And the odds of winning the battle depend as much on sound economics as on government resolve, lawmakers suggested. Zhu Jianguo, a political adviser, yesterday proposed that wet markets scrap stall fees to help lower food prices.
The city's wet markets used to be entirely government-run, but as of 1997, 80 percent of them had been privatized in the misguided belief that bread-and-butter issues should be left to the market.
A result of this misinformed decision is that privately owned wet markets can collect vendors' fees and other administrative "overhead" from vegetable stands as they please. Hawkers respond by raising the prices of produce.
Feeling the pinch
This compounds the misery as food prices soar in times of heightened inflation pressure, leaving many to feel the pinch.
But taking back control of private wet markets is not an option, as it would require 20 billion-30 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion-US$4.5 billion) - way higher than the government can afford, local lawmaker Zheng Huiqiang was quoted as saying in yesterday's Xinming Evening News.
Of course, the government can weigh incentives such as tax breaks and more subsidies to wet market operators, be they public or private, but why not abolish the administrative fees altogether?
It makes no economic sense to subsidize wet market operators that already overcharge for their services. Of course, factors other than stall fees are at play in the recent food price increases, for instance, the road tolls levied on trucks carrying vegetables from agricultural provinces into the city.
The Wenhui Daily reported on December 21, after tracking the journey of tomatoes from Shouguang, Shandong Province - a major grower - to Shanghai, that tomatoes freshly picked from local farms cost 1.85 yuan a kilogram.
At a Shanghai wet market their price jumped to 3 yuan a kilogram.
Yet truck drivers complained that they lost money on the delivery trips. So if they didn't make money, who did? We may never know the real beneficiaries of this much-touted division of labor, perhaps it is because there are no beneficiaries at all.
Rejecting costly and high-carbon transport of vegetables and fruit over long distances, hard-nosed environmentalists consume produce only grown locally.
Shanghai's government heeded this wisdom in the wake of the food price crisis. It encourages local vegetable farmers to grow more, and shelters them under an insurance scheme that would indemnify them against any loss should prices drop below costs.
But it can do more. As Mayor Han pointed out in his speech, the locations of wet markets should be "scientifically chosen." He didn't elaborate.
It doesn't take rocket science to figure out where to build a new wet market. The principle is, of course, the closer to home, the better. Alas, this principle has so far been an afterthought when it gets in the way of vanity projects.
So if residents living close to Nanjing Road W. - now largely given over to super luxury brands only - wake up one day to find they have a wet market as their new neighbor, we should indeed be surprised, because that will signal true determination to tackle the wet market problem.
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