The recent floods in the peninsula have resulted in the prices of vegetables soaring.

This time round, even Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, may not be able to brag about the decrease of price of kangkung (water spinach).

Yesterday morning, Malaysiakini did a walkabout at Pudu wet market, the largest in Kuala Lumpur, to conduct a survey on vegetable prices.

Some greens doubled, even tripled their normal costs, making them more expensive than meat, which is under government price control and has a cap of RM7.

The price of spring union rocketed to more than RM10 per kilogram, Chinese spinach, Choy Sum, as well as kangkung, soared to RM8, from RM2 to RM3.

Zhang, a vegetable seller at the market, said this is a consequence of shortages in supply.

“Currently it is not uncommon to see prices reach RM10 per kilogram. For kangkung and Chinese spinach, eight to nine ringgit is now normal, before this it was RM3, RM4 at most. Leaf lettuce, Chinese cabbage was RM3 to RM4, now it’s up to RM10,” he said.

The septuagenarian, who has been in the vegetable retailing business most of his life, described the prices as the highest in 50 years.

“Previously, (when there were floods) prices rose, but not as bad. Nowadays, the rain is strong, Cameron Highlands has landslides. There are floods particularly in the east coast, which is supposed to export vegetables. People from there are now coming to KL to purchase vegetables after the floods.”

Some customers turned to buy cheaper vegetables, while others chose to buy imported vegetables from China as their prices were stable, not being affected by the floods.

He observed that some people would buy less, while others would buy potatoes which could keep longer.

Price surge

Jeff Tan, the president of the Pudu Petty Traders and Hawkers Association, estimated that current vegetables prices had surged 200 to 300 percent.

According to Tan’s estimates, the supply for vegetables is only 40 percent of that before the floods.

“Chinese spinach and choy sum used to be RM2, but rose up to RM8; cucumber was RM2 previously, now it’s RM4. Spring onion used to be RM4 to RM5, now RM10. It even went up to RM20 few days ago. In a nutshell, the price of every type of vegetable rose,” he said.

Comparing the recent flood with the floods in 2006, where Johor was severely hit, Jeff said this time it was worse.

“Muar's floods used to be the worst, and the price of vegetables rose to RM5 to RM6 (per kg). However, this time is more serious, because people are sending vegetables to Kelantan as the flood victims have no vegetables to eat.”

But this, he observed, resulted in more shortages all round.

However, he pointed out that the prices have been going down in the past few days, and he expected they would be back to normal after a few weeks.

When asked, consumers said they were looking for vegetables that cost less.

Yang, 62, a cleaner from Sri Petaling, said she usually spent RM10 on vegetables, but could only “buy whatever is cheap” now, adding there was nothing else she could do.

A retiree, Wang said: “Vegetables are expensive now. Before this, RM2 of Chinese spinach was a lot, now it’s very little.”

Another interviewee, Loo, however, had a different view. He said people could cut down on other expenses but not food, as it is a basic need.

“If the rise in cost is RM2, one month would be RM60. We can dine out less, buy fewer clothes, but money for food should not be saved,” he asserted.