BEIJING - Prices of edible farm produce in 36 major Chinese cities rebounded after declining for seven consecutive weeks, new official data show.

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 percent 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 percent week-on-week.

Prices of beef, mutton and chicken also dropped 0.5, 0.2 and 1 percent 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 percent year-on-year in March, down from a 10-month high of 3.2 percent in February, according to official data released Tuesday.

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