The Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday in an online statement that the average wholesale prices for 18 vegetables on the monitored list surged 7.1 per cent week-on-week.

The ministry attributed the rise to the supply gap between out-of-stock winter items and limited supplies of new vegetables.

Bucking the trend, the wholesale price of pork, the country's staple meat, fell 2.3 per cent week-on-week.

Prices of beef, mutton and chicken also dropped 0.5, 0.2 and 1 per cent week on week, respectively, according to the statement.

Food prices account for about one-third of the prices used to calculate China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation.

China's CPI grew 2.1 per cent year-on-year in March, down from a 10-month high of 3.2 per cent in February, according to official data released Tuesday (16 April).