寿光捐赠蔬菜被销售，武汉市商务局回应了丨Donated Vegetables uprooted by netizens

A total of 350 tons of fresh vegetables were donated to the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, from China's vegetable capital Shouguang. However, this donation was not received all that well with some online communities, asking why "donations" were not free for Wuhan's citizens.  

The city's commerce bureau responded on its official website that the vegetables were allocated to three local supermarket companies for sales, and revenues will be handed over to the municipal finance department, who are organizing funds for combating the novel coronavirus.

Vegetables are perishable and they are not suitable for long-time storage, thus must be rushed to their destinations — kitchens and tables. Nearly a thousand tons of vegetables have been donated to Wuhan since the crisis began, from many provinces, to help boost local supplies. These expedited imports need to be readily available to residents through our supermarket outlets, said the online statement. 

As to netizens' doubts about the means of tackling the donations, an official at the Wuhan commerce bureau said during a telephone interview with BJNews that "we've noticed the skepticism online and many believe the donated vegetables should be given out for free. But how can we carry out this de facto plan?"

"How could we fairly give the vegetables away to nearly 10 million residents without creating chaos?" he said. "Actually, many problems would spring up (if we hand them out for free), so we choose to sell them at a lower price."

With all the public transportation cut off, it is extremely hard to separately deliver the vegetables to those in need because it's inconvenient to get around in the city, said the official. 

Local media from Hubei province did a survey and found out the donated cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes and more were sold at a price at only 40 percent of market counterparts. 

On Jan 27, the Shouguang municipal government mobilized specialized vegetable markets, agricultural parks and vegetable farmers to pick the vegetables for Wuhan and load them overnight upon receiving instructions from the National Development and Reform Commission. 

The first batch of 350 tons of vegetables arrived in Wuhan at 10 am Jan 29 after journeying for over 1,000 km and was welcomed by local officials. Upon arrival, the vegetables were delivered overnight to stores and were finally put on store shelves the morning of Jan 30. 

The daily turnover of vegetables in Shouguang, Shandong province, currently is more than 20,000 tons, and will continue to support Wuhan with a daily supply of 600 tons of high-quality and affordable vegetables as needed.

撰稿：焦洁

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