Chinese Government Distributes Vegetables To Wuhan City To Lower Prices

JAKARTA - The Chinese authorities asked farmers to increase vegetable production. This was done to meet the food needs of residents of Wuhan City, who have been isolated since Thursday, January 23. In addition, Chinese authorities have also said they will punish those who take profits or overcharge society for selling vegetables.

Last week, Chinese authorities closed most transportation routes to Wuhan City to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus (2019-nCoV / Wuhan Flu).

Thousands of cases of the corona virus have occurred in China, while the outbreak has also spread to a number of countries such as the United States, Thailand and Singapore.

In the run-up to the closure of Wuhan City, the entire public rushed to the supermarket to buy stocks of instant noodles, vegetables and whatever else they could keep for a long time. Some people said that the food stocks they stored might only last for 10 days, while the government did not confirm how long the city of Wuhan was isolated.

Quoted from Reuters, Thursday, January 30, 2020, Shouguang, an area known as China's largest vegetable production base, has been asked to ship 600 tons of fresh vegetables to Wuhan every day for the next 10-15 days.

This was conveyed directly by an official in Sunjiaji, one of the villages in Shouguang. The village of Sunjiaji, whose main crop is cucumbers, was tasked with shipping 60 tonnes of cucumbers in less than seven hours.

"We got an order from our government at 11pm on Monday (27 January 2020). We immediately contacted our farmers, asking them to pick cucumbers overnight and bring their harvest to us before 6 am. We ended up sending 70 tonnes," said the official who was reluctant to give his name.

China's largest food and agricultural companies, COFCO Group and China Grain Reserves Corp (Sinograin) Group have also increased supplies of rice, meat and cooking oil to Hubei Province.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notification, urging relevant departments to coordinate on maintaining a stable supply of vegetables and prices.

Delivery trucks carrying food are exempt from travel restrictions if they have a permit from the government. Authorities have cracked down on price hike cases and published them to warn the public against raising prices.

On Tuesday, January 28, 2020, a supermarket in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, was fined 500,000 yuan (around Rp. 98 million) for selling cabbage for 63 yuan (around Rp. 123,000) which was normally 17 yuan (around Rp. 33,000).