 "Chilli")
Chinese farmer Gao Ge was worried. The 27-year-old from Shandong province had chosen not to sell his freshly picked chilli pepper crop after prices soared by almost a third in just two weeks in November, hoping for even higher prices.
Speculators were scooping up tonnes of the spicy fruit, betting on tight supplies as hot temperatures and heavy rain damaged the nation's crop, cutting it by 10 per cent.
Last year, the same investors played a similar game in garlic, sending prices to stratospheric levels.
But now, prices have slipped as fears about low supplies have ebbed, Gao hasn't sold a single pepper, and the two-tonne crop sitting at his small farm is losing its colour — and its value.
In late January, Gao was scrambling to sell his harvest in Jinxiang, one of the country's main chilli trading hubs, to fund his family of five's week-long Lunar New Year holiday.
"I'm a bit panicked," he said by phone just days before festivities started on January 28.
"We have been toiling for the whole year and now we want to sell our stock and celebrate the new year."
Keeping prices and food supplies stable is a priority for Beijing, as the government seeks to ensure staples for its growing urban population and maintain the health of farming, one of the biggest sectors in the world's No. 2 economy.
So while chilli prices are still at historically high levels, the role of speculative investors in roiling the market and the difficulty some small farmers are having in selling their products have raised concerns. The government has already cracked down in other red-hot markets including equities and property.
The jump in prices has also captured attention in India, the world's top producer, where traders say orders from China are up.
"If China's production drops, it will help us in raising exports," said Alapati Srinivasa Rao, a trader based at Guntur, India's biggest market for chillies. "India is the only country that can supply large amount of chillies to China."
This is the second time in less than a year that speculators have put Jinxiang in the spotlight. Last summer, a small group of retail investors piled into garlic, spurring a spike in prices of the pungent bulbs.
Just a few months later, buyers had cleared their garlic stocks and were looking for fresh investment opportunities.
"All my clients made money from investing in garlic. Then they saw they could also hoard chillies, so they bought in," said Li Shun, a 45-year old agent in Jinxiang, overseeing piles of chillies being sacked up in his chilled warehouses.
