|
There have been two pieces of news about dramatic price fluctuation of agricultural products recently. One is the 20-fold year-on-year rise in the price of garlic, and the other is about banana price in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region falling to 0.4 yuan from last year's 1.5 yuan a kg. The People's Daily reported on Monday that traders purchased garlic from farmers in Shandong province at 4.4 yuan a kg while the price was 0.6 yuan a kg in May. Normally, I do not pay much attention to fluctuations in grocery prices because I am not the cook in my family. So to find out about the price changes, I did a small investigation yesterday at a supermarket near my home. I found that garlic sold for 12 yuan and bananas for 4 yuan a kg. As a consumer, I certainly dislike any price rise. But the thought that my rural cousins (I have worked and lived in the countryside for 10 years) could benefit from the higher prices of farm products soon put my mind at ease. My heart would not ache if the extra money I paid ended up in my fellow countrymen's wallets. And I believe most urban consumers would accept the burden without too much grievance. The problem, however, is whether the money really finds its way into the farmers' pockets. We urban residents want to know. According to the People's Daily report, most garlic glowers disposed of their products when the price rose to 2 yuan a kg. And that was exactly the production cost. Given this fact, we can conclude that the intermediate traders between the producers and consumers grabbed the largest part of the extra profits generated from the rise in the price, with only a small number of farmers making a little more money. | 
