Wholesale prices of vegetables are rising due to unstable weather conditions, such as heavy rains that have delayed crop growth, a trend that may affect households in the form of higher retail prices.
At the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, prices of some vegetables have been on the rise for about two weeks, with the weekly average for the July 9-15 period coming to ¥2,037 per 5 kg of green onions and ¥1,050 per 10 kg of Japanese radishes, both up more than 20 percent from the previous week.
The price of lettuce surged about 70 percent from two weeks earlier to ¥1,008 per 10 kg.