BEIJING - CHINA'S priorities in ensuring food supply are shifting from pork to vegetables after bitter winter storms damaged fragile plants across the normally temperate south.

Sharp rises in the prices of food in China for more than a year had been originally driven by grains and meat, as a shortage of pigs caused prices to spike and drove inflation to 4.8 per cent in 2007, well above Beijing's original target of about 3 per cent.

Freak cold and snow across south China over the past month killed 107 people, caused US$15.4 billion (S$22 billion) in direct economic losses, downed power lines, triggered a series of road accidents and left millions headed home for the Lunar New Year holiday stranded.

'In some regions the prices of some products increased markedly during the short term, but the margin and duration are generally bearable and the prices have now almost returned to normal,' the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement ahead of a joint news conference.

'Generally speaking there is no problem with supply, prices have dropped from the early days of the disaster but due to transport problems in remote areas, prices of some goods are still high,' assistant Commerce Minister Huang Hai told reporters.

Ensuring vegetable supply and restoring production had become a new priority, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

'There were no big fluctuations in the supply of cereals, cooking oil, eggs, poultry, fish or milk,' it said. 'But in some regions there are still shortages of meat and vegetables.'

China had built pork reserves after pork prices soared last summer and had released the meat to tamp down prices ahead of the Lunar New Year, when prices normally rise as hundreds of millions of Chinese head home to feast with their families.

Since Feb 1, China had released 1,250 tonnes of live pigs on to markets in certain afflicted provinces, the Ministry of Commerce said.

That followed releases of 6,000 tonnes of live pigs between Jan 21 and Feb 5, and 17,000 tonnes of frozen pork between Jan 21 and Feb 1, it said.