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Prices of many vegetables - from Thai asparagus to Malaysian
tomatoes - have been inching up over the past month, and importers
warn that prices are likely to stay high as demand strengthens over
the Christmas and Chinese New Year periods.
The high prices now are an anomaly, they say. Typically, prices
start to rise only late next month, when demand increases during
the festive season.
At Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, some vegetables now cost
twice as much as they did just a month ago.
Mr Gary Ong, 44, who owns Vat Thoa Vegetables Wholesaler, a
stall there, said the supply of some vegetables, such as long
beans, brinjal and tomatoes, has been severely affected. These
vegetables cannot survive in waterlogged areas.
'Suppliers have told us that bad weather and flooding have
affected crops. Vegetables such as kang kong and cai xin are less
affected because they can survive in water,' he said.