Japan Prouduce Prices: Positives and Negatives In Any Situation:

https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0006320813


The average retail prices of lettuce and cabbage in Japan last week were about 40% lower than those in normal years, according to an agriculture ministry survey.

The average retail prices sagged between 5% and 40% for eight vegetables apparently because relatively high temperatures since last autumn brought forward the shipments, mainly of leafy vegetables, the survey showed Tuesday.

The prices of lettuce, cabbage and daikon Japanese radish declined 40%, 39% and 27%, respectively.
The ministry predicts that temperatures will remain relatively high during the winter.

Therefore, the wholesale prices of some vegetables are expected to become cheaper than normal years in February, with the average prices of lettuce, cabbage, hakusai Chinese cabbage, daikon and potato seen falling more than 20% from normal years.

Commentary:

Weather seems to be a factor in the prices of vegetables as seen from this short article. If the weather is good, for a good growing season, the most likely, as seen, the supply will be larger.

You would think this would be good for growers and farmers; the larger the supply the more to sell.

But normal supply and demand seems to think differently. The higher the supply the lower the prices and the lower the supply, the higher the prices.

What this indicates, possibly, is that the market can only use or sell so much of a product. Too much and the suppliers/growers have to sell the product at a lower price to sell it all.

Too little and the producers/sellers have to increase the price to get the same revenue from a normal year of output.

If the weather were the opposite, for example a less than normal growing season, and the output was much less then the farmers/sellers would of course increase the price to match the needed revenue for a normal growing season.

This seems of course all well and good for consumers who prefer lower prices but not so good for farmers who need a certain amount of revenue to stay in business.

For the sellers of the products/products, if the market can handle it, maybe they can sell all at the lower price(s) and be OK, but then again the same idea; how much can the market sell in any one year?

How much of a lettuce or cabbage can be sold in any one year is always the challenge to figure out.


© 2020, Tom Metts, all rights reserved