Demand for vegetable doubles, but Shanghai officials reassure residents that food supply is 'sufficient'

Shanghai has sufficient food supply for its residents during the Chinese New Year holiday although faced with surging needs than usual, Liu Min, vice director of Shanghai commerce commission, said on Wednesday at a regular press conference.

The amount of staple and non-staple food including vegetable and pork can satisfy the basic demand from the residents, Liu said.

"Due to the special situation, more people stay in Shanghai during the holiday than usual, and more people dine at home," she said.

Liu said the government has been closely monitoring the market and matching shops with producers so as to ensure stable supply of food, which is already larger in amount than previous Chinese New Year holidays.

The amount of vegetable and pork available in the market has been increasing day by day, and a reserve of 6,000 tons of vegetable remains every day, and there is also enough reserve of pork, according to Liu.

Shanghai has also been purchasing vegetable from Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan and Yunnan provinces, so that the amount of vegetable available every day is over 5,000 tons every day, she said.

Residents are now also consuming pork from Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces.

Meanwhile, supermarkets and hypermarkets in Shanghai have stepped up purchasing of food products, Liu said.

Ye Junping, vice director of the agriculture and rural affairs commission, said the demand for vegetable from Shanghai residents doubled during the Chinese New Year holiday this year, while the production was down 20 to 30 percent during the holiday due to the previous rain streak and the home going of vegetable farmers working in Shanghai before the holiday.

The commission said it has given instructions to vegetable cooperatives and production bases to harvest and plant vegetable as much as possible while ensuring quality of the products.