Bitter cold spells in recent days have badly affected agriculture leading to a shortage of fresh vegetables and an increase in retail prices in Ha Noi.

The volume of available vegetables has reduced significantly in the last two days at the North Thang Long and Kim Nguu wholesale markets.

Nguyen Van Chuc, a wholesaler, said the weather was to blame for the bad harvest and the subsequent shortage of vegetables.

The price of vegetables had surged by 20-30 per cent compared with before the cold spells, Chuc said.

At present, the price is at VND4,000 per tuber of kohlrabi, VND8,000 per bundle of water dropwort, VND6,000 per bundle of watercress, VND5,000-7,000 per kilo of cabbage and VND7,000 per kilo of tomatoes.

Le Thi Huong, a retailer from Ngoc Ha Market, said customers were being forced to pay higher prices because retailers were at the mercy of wholesalers. She said the price would decrease slightly when the weather got warmer.

However, a retailer on Truong Dinh Street said she could not predict what would happen to the price in the near future, due to the likelihood of hoarfrost.

Vegetable prices have also increased by 5-10 per cent in supermarkets.

Most vegetable traders expected the price to increase due to high demand for the Lunar New Year.

Meanwhile, meat and seafood retailers said prices had remained unchanged but were likely to rise for the same reason.