The price of ginger hit a 10-year high, "re-Jiang Yijun" highlights the old information asymmetry.

Xinhua Nanjing, August 12 (Reporter Nie Ke) with the re-attack of "Jiang your army", the price of agricultural products has once again attracted people's attention. The price of ginger was very low in the first half of last year, reaching a 10-year high this summer, even surpassing the first wave of "Jiang your army" in 2010. People concerned in the market believe that agricultural products frequently start a "price roller coaster", which is a common experience of the market in the case of information asymmetry.

"Jiang your army" attacked again.

"I already have the lowest price in the game." At the Kexiang vegetable market in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, Lao Xu, a vegetable vendor, pointed to 10 yuan of ginger per jin and told reporters. Selling ginger for nearly ten years, Lao Xu has never sold it at such a high price.

On Lao Xu's vegetable stall, there are leeks, towel gourd, cabbage and other agricultural products. Only ginger is packed in plastic bags and tied up. "now that ginger is so expensive, fewer people buy it." Lao Xu said.

The reporter saw that in a large supermarket next to the Kexiang vegetable market, the price of ginger reached 14.8 yuan per jin. According to Shen Jiaan, director of the office of Nanjing Agricultural and sideline products Logistics Center, as a primary wholesale market for agricultural products in Nanjing, ginger in the logistics center has been sold at a maximum of 8.5 yuan per jin since August, while the average price of ginger in May last year was only more than 1 yuan per jin.

According to the monitoring and statistics of the Nanjing Price Bureau, from August 1 to 7, the average price of ginger in the city was 10.7 yuan per jin, compared with 5.1 yuan per jin in the same period last year, more than doubling the price.

The high price of ginger has become a common phenomenon all over the country. According to the systematic monitoring of the national price of agricultural and sideline products and agricultural trade by Xinhua News Agency, the price of ginger in about 70% of the provinces, autonomous regions and cities is more than 10 yuan per jin, and the price of ginger in all provinces, autonomous regions and cities is on the rise.

The production household is small, "follow"

As the "poisoned ginger" incident last year significantly depressed the price of ginger, many producers have "fled" the ginger market. It is understood that the planting area of ginger in Laiwu, Shandong Province was 100000 mu in 2011 and only 59000 mu in 2013, a reduction of nearly half.

Zhao Chengfa of the Agricultural and sideline products Cooperative in Yishui County, Shandong Province, told reporters that because the output of ginger last year was relatively small, and this year's ginger will not be harvested until October, so at present, the supply of ginger has been falling short of demand, and prices are constantly rising. "We only look at the price. Last year's price was so low that we planted less." Zhao Chengfa explains why the supply of ginger falls short of demand this year.

With the continuous development of information technology, the price shock in the local market will soon have an impact on the overall market. "as soon as the price in Shandong goes up, we can only follow suit." Lao Xu said.

In the view of Zhou Yingheng, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Nanjing Agricultural University, this is a manifestation of the incompatibility between the pattern of small-scale production and circulation and the increasingly integrated market. Zhou Yingheng said that the current production of agricultural products is still small-scale production. Although there are nearly 1 million cooperatives in China, only 1/10 are large and large-scale cooperatives, and most of them are actually scattered small-scale farmers. "small producers do not understand the market situation and can only passively adapt to the market according to the price." Zhou Yingheng said.

When will you stop "feeling"?

How to deal with the situation of market information asymmetry? Zhao Chengguang said bluntly that he did not pay much attention to the statistical information publicly released by the government. Due to the lack of detailed data, producers like Zhao Chengguang can only rely on market prices and feel to determine next year's output.

Zhou Yingheng believes that the government plays an important role in the market and should be a service provider rather than an interventionist. "Pork prices were very high a few years ago, and the government intervened in the market. Although the price was stabilized, it did harm to farmers." Zhou Yingheng said that the government should do a good job in the integration and public release of information so that buyers and sellers can fully understand the market; at the same time, it should also foster large-scale production so that producers have the ability to cope with price fluctuations.

At present, there are still some problems in the integration of market information. The relevant person in charge of the Nanjing Price Bureau said that although there are price statistics now, they are all ex post facto actions and lack of effective market forecasts, so it is difficult to guide producers in advance.

In this regard, Zhou Yingheng believes that the existing technology can already count the market information more accurately, and regular, scientific and authoritative information statistics and release are conducive to the health of the market.

Shen Jiaan, on the other hand, said that he hoped that a third party could act as a "consultant". "if there are institutions that can make detailed statistics and forecasts and make a profit as the sale of information products, it can attract more institutions to make better agricultural product information." Shen Jiaan said.