Production resumes in China's major vegetable supplier

JINAN -- China's major vegetable producer Shouguang city has resumed production after last summer's Typhoon Rumbia, the local agricultural department said Tuesday.

Among 106,700 greenhouses flooded by the typhoon in Shouguang, over 94 percent have been restored, and the remaining 5,981 constitute 3 percent of the total 172,000 greenhouses of the eastern county-level city, according to the local authorities.

"The city's vegetable production has returned to its normal level with most greenhouses rebuilt and favorable warm weather this winter," said Zhang Linlin, an official in the city's bureau of agriculture.

A total of 450 million yuan ($66.8 million) in loans has been offered to 3,811 affected households in reconstruction assistance, according to Wang Shuguang, director of the city's financial service center.

Last August, typhoon Rumbia brought heavy rains to China's coastal province of Shandong, and a total of 520,000 people were affected in Shouguang, according to the local department of civil affairs.

With an annual vegetable production of 4.5 million tonnes, Shouguang is famous for production of "off-season vegetables" and is a major vegetable supplier for Beijing. Its daily announcements of vegetable prices function as a "barometer" for China's vegetable sector.