Based on the "Three Agricultural Elements of China" we are now in the period in which new hot peppers hit the market in large amounts. A couple hundred traders trade on a daily basis on the chili pepper exchange market, which is located in Zunyi city's Xiazi town. The market price has utterly exploded. However, in the north of China, the price for pepper is falling.
Recently, the amount of peppers on the market in the region of Guizhou province has been growing substantially. Currently the price for the largest local variety, "lantern pepper", is the highest. The price in Guizhou province's town of Xiazi stands at 2.26 EUR a kilogram (19.2 RMB), which is 60 cents more than last year. Suffering from last year's low prices, the activity of the farmers in Guizhou region was utterly low, so the area used to grow lantern peppers was 30% smaller. Due to the rain in the south of the country, the output per hectare has also been reduced by 30%, or even more. Adding to this, old goods have some time to run out before new products hit the market, which has also brought about an unusually high price this year.
In comparison to the good sales in the south, the market price for peppers in the north is rather weak. Peppers from the Jinxiang region of Shandong province have not entered the market yet, so for the moment stock goods are being used. The current price for stock peppers is between 1.33-1.36 EUR per kilogram (10.40-10.60 RMB), which demonstrates a drop of 50 cents compared to last year. The price for peppers in the north has dropped because the area used to grow them is too large. Another reason for this price depression for garlic from the north is the high pressure on storehouses. Statistics show that pepper reserves in storehouses in China hold up to about 70,000-80,000 tons, so the amount of exchanged goods is large which has dragged on to the market price.