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Vegetable prices surge in Japan due to heavy rain and lack of sunlight

Jul 30 (Japan Times) - Vegetable prices are surging in the nation due to poor crops, blamed on unfavorable weather conditions such as a long spell of rain and a lack of sunlight.

“If the rainy season ends in early August, vegetable prices would likely stabilize in the second half of the month,” said an official of the Horticultural Crop Division of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry’s Agricultural Production Bureau.

But prices would remain high depending on weather conditions, continuing to hit households, analysts warned.

At the Tokyo central wholesale market on Monday, wholesale prices stood at ¥321 per kilogram for carrots, up 2.2-fold from levels seen in normal years, at ¥315 for potatoes, up 2.1-fold, at ¥291 for lettuces, up 1.7-fold, and at ¥520 for eggplants, up 1.6-fold.

Carrots traded at the market mainly come from Aomori Prefecture and Hokkaido, potatoes chiefly from Shizuoka Prefecture and lettuces mainly from Nagano Prefecture.

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