The price of Heaven Facing peppers rapidly increased this year. The main reason for this development was the widespread collapse of greenhouses in Shouguang, Shandong, after torrential rainfall last year. Greenhouses are not easily repaired and this natural disaster interrupted out-of-season vegetable production in Shandong, which means that market supply is currently limited. The price of several kinds of vegetable increased as a result of this natural disaster.
Peppers are not only vegetables, they are also seasoning, so the demand volume is enormous. The pepper production volume per hectare is astonishing. Pepper farmers can harvest three times a year. Even though the overall surface area devoted to pepper plantation did not expand this year, the supply volume of Heaven Facing peppers is quite large this summer. The surface area devoted to Heaven Facing peppers is particularly large in Hunan, Hubei, and Sichuan.
The price of peppers greatly increased this year, and the beginning of March saw another significant price rise. The price of peppers was already around 4 yuan [0.60 USD] per 0.5 kg before Chinese Spring Festival [February 5th, 2019], but increased even further in this season when the winter storage of vegetables runs out but the spring harvest is not yet on the market.
