人头攒动的广东新供销商店位于广州郊区黄边一座超市中一个不起眼的角落，超市的其它区域基本上空空荡荡。乍看上去，这座商店和中国其它任何一家日杂店没有什么区别，但它却是中国政府抵御食品价格通胀的一个前沿阵地。
政府的举措成功地改变了许多人的购物习惯。40多岁的徐阿姨一边往购物车里装卷心菜，一边表示，自己对广东省政府在全省范围推广建设平价商店的举措十分满意。“卷心菜一斤才卖5毛8，甚至比菜市场还便宜，那里要卖一块钱一斤呢，”她说道。广东省临近香港，拥有9500万人口。
今年广东省已经有40家类似的平价商店开业，通过政府补贴和直接从农户采购，来确保菜价低廉。广东省政府计划在未来3年投资4.5亿元人民币（合7000万美元），建设300家平价商店。
广东省副省长肖志恒上月表示，广东的这一举措借鉴了新加坡的做法，上世纪70年代，新加坡工会创建了第一批平价商店，但如今已成为新加坡最大的零售商。
55岁的严先生正在黄边商店里买鸡蛋，他表示，每隔几天就会步行20分钟来这里为四口之家采购。“政府应该开更多的平价商店，现在的物价完全乱了套，”他表示。
上周五，官方数据显示3月份食品价格同比上涨11.7%，之后政府公布了一系列基本消费品的价格管制新举措，突显出广东省试验举措的重要性。
印度和印尼等国家政府也在与食品价格上涨作斗争。在印度，洋葱等蔬菜的价格持续上涨，令本已处境艰难的曼莫汉•辛格(Manmohan Singh)政府雪上加霜。
但在中国，食品价格通胀是最敏感的话题之一，中央政府总是将其归咎于恶劣的天气或投机行为。经济咨询公司龙洲经讯(GaveKal Dragonomics)的威尔•弗里曼(Will Freeman)表示，实际原因更加复杂。他指出，农业用地价格不断上涨、薪酬和其它投入成本日益上升都是食品价格上涨的原因所在。
农田租金是根源之一。例如，海南岛的农田租金自2005年以来已增长数倍。在全国各地，由于快速的城市化进程，对城市边缘地区的土地需求大幅增长，农田减少，而城郊住宅项目增加。
弗里曼指出，与此同时，推高了工业产品价格的工资成本也对蔬菜价格产生了超乎比例的影响，因为这部分成本在蔬菜价格中所占比重接近一半，而在制造品的全部成本中所占比重仅为10%，甚至更低。去年，内陆乡镇地区的工资水平上涨近20%。
深圳一家非政府农民工组织的负责人刘开明讲诉了让自己惊讶的一件事，去年他在福建乡下遇到一些老年人，月收入达1600元人民币。“我问为什么。他们说年轻人都不愿意呆在村子里，”刘开明表示。
上诉潜在因素表明，通胀会呈现长期上升趋势，有鉴于此，广东的学者认为，单靠平价商店无法扭转这种趋势。广东商学院教授王先庆（音）表示：“平价商店适合对价格更加敏感的人。像我这样的人是不会去那里购物的。即便有数百家甚至上千家这样的商店，也不会影响市场价格。”
黄边平价商店楼下就有家菜市场，政府的平价商店近在咫尺，竞争之下那里的商贩生意受到了影响。“它们（政府供销商店）有大老板，还有政府补贴。这太不公平了，”一位女商贩愤愤不平地说到。
广东新供销商贸公司(Guangdong New Co-Op)承认会定期得到政府补贴，但将与楼下菜市场的竞争描述为“适者生存”。然而，要想制服中国的食品价格通胀，可能不会那么容易。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001038134
The bustling Guangdong New Co-op grocery store tucked away in a corner of an otherwise empty supermarket in Huangbian, a suburb of Guangzhou, looks much like any other grocery store in the country, but it is a front-line in the Chinese government’s battle against food inflation.
The campaign has won plenty of converts. Mrs Xu, a 40-something shopper, put cabbages into her trolley and declared she was pleased with the local government’s new initiative to roll out inexpensive grocery stores in the province, which is just across the border from Hong Kong and has a population of 95m. “It’s just Rmb0.58 per jin [500g]. It is even cheaper than the wet market, which sells cabbage at Rmb1 per jin,” she said.
Guangdong has opened 40 similar low-priced grocery stores this year, keeping prices low through a combination of state subsidies and direct buying from farmers. The local government plans to spend Rmb450m ($70m) building 300 low-price grocery stores over the next three years.
Xiao Zhizeng, the province’s vice-governor, said last month that Guangdong’s initiative was inspired by Singapore’s fair price stores, started by the city’s unions in the 1970s but now the largest retailer in the city-state.
Shopping in the Huangbian store for eggs, Mr Yan, 55, said he walked 20 minutes each way to the store every couple of days to shop for his family of four. “More cheap grocery stores need to be opened. Prices are totally messed up,” he said.
On Friday, fresh price controls on basic consumer items were revealed after official data showed that food prices had risen by 11.7 per cent in March compared with the same time last year, underlining the importance of the Guangdong experiment.
Governments from India to Indonesia are also grappling with higher food prices. In India, the relentless rise in the price of onions and other vegetables has added to the headaches for the embattled government of Manmohan Singh.
But food price inflation is one of the most sensitive issues in China and Beijing has variously blamed bad weather and speculation. Will Freeman, of Gavekal Dragonomics, an economic consultancy, says the truth is more complicated. He says the rising price of agricultural land in China, rising wages and other input costs are to blame.
Farmland rents are one of the culprits. In the tropical island of Hainan, for instance, they have risen by several multiples since 2005. The demand for land on the edges of China’s cities everywhere has seen a big jump because of rapid urbanisation, pricing out farming in favour of suburban housing.
Meanwhile, wage costs, which have been driving up factory prices , have a disproportionate effect on vegetable prices, observes Mr Freeman, because they account for about half of the price of vegetables, versus just 10 per cent or less of the total cost of manufactured goods. In the rural hinterland, wages rose by almost 20 per cent last year.
Liu Kaiming, who heads a non-governmental organisation for migrant workers in Shenzhen, recounts with surprise that elderly men he met late last year in rural Fujian, across the strait from Taiwan, were earning as much as Rmb1,600 a month. “I asked why. They say young people don’t want to stay in the village,” Mr Liu says.
Given these underlying factors that point to a long-term rise in inflation, academics in Guangdong say the low-priced stores alone cannot turn back the tide. Wang Xianqing, director of Guangdong Commercial College, says, “The cheap grocery stores will be for people more sensitive to prices. People like me won’t shop there. Hundreds or even thousands of these stores won’t affect market prices.”
Hawkers at a wet market just a floor down from the Huangbian store who compete with the government low-price store at close quarters are seeing a downturn in their business. “They [the government co-ops] have a big boss and a state subsidy. This is so unfair,” fumed a woman hawker.
The Guangdong New Co-Op store admitted it regularly received government subsidies, but characterised the competition with the wet market downstairs as “a survival of the fittest”. Food inflation across China, however, might not be vanquished as easily.
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