China, already beset by a worrying real estate bubble, is now grappling with surging prices for a dinner table staple closer to home – garlic.
The world’s largest producer of the pungent bulbs, China has seen wholesale prices rocket as much as 15-fold since March in large cities such as Beijing, forced up in part by a combination of reduced acreage being planted by local farmers because of the recession – and a belief that garlic can keep away swine flu.
