(Yicai Global) Nov. 23 -- Chongqing Fuling Zhacai Group, maker of one of China’s favorite preserved vegetable brands, is the latest food producer to announce a significant price increase to cover surging raw material prices and big jumps in the cost of labor, electricity and transport.

Fuling Zhacai, whose pickled vegetables are eaten with almost every meal in China, will increase the price of some of its products by as much as 19 percent this month, the Chongqing-based firm said on Nov. 15. Astonishingly, its new 900-gram gift box of pickled edibles is priced at CNY1,521.90 (USD238) on e-commerce platforms, when an equivalent weight of off-the-shelf pickles would cost 30 times less.

The price increase is mostly due to surging raw material prices, Fuling Zhacai said. Raw materials and packaging make up 45 percent and 20 percent of the cost of the product, it added.

Other food makers, including Jiangsu Hengshun Vinegar Industry, which makes the staple ingredient Zhenjiang vinegar used in Chinese cuisine, dry noodle maker Chen Ke Ming Food Manufacturing, condiment producer Foshun Haitian Flavoring and Food as well as the country’s largest quick-frozen food manufacturer Sanquan Food have also raised prices in the last month.

The price increases are driven by the pressures of rising costs and the firms' desire for more profits, said food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng.

Whether these price hikes can be easily passed onto the consumer depends on end demand and market competition, Guotai Juan Securities said.

The price scissors, or the divergence between the value of industrial products and agricultural goods, set a new record of 12 percentage points last month in China, excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Nov. 10. The consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, rose 1.5 percent year on year in October, while the producer price index, a measure of industrial profitability, was up 13.5 percent.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Kim Taylor