Shanghai resident Wu Xiaoxia is in the habit of keeping a record of her daily expenses, including the money she spends on vegetables. According to her little tally book, prices have surged in the last few months.

"Spinach price almost doubled to 10 yuan (US$1.5) per kilo from 6 yuan earlier this year. So did the price of broccoli, surging from 8 yuan per kilo to 12 yuan," said the middle-aged woman who shops every day at the vegetable market on the Xietu Road in Shanghai, China's business capital.

"I felt the vegetable basket was getting heavier" said Wu, metaphorically referring to the burden on Chinese families caused by the spike in vegetable costs.

Vegetable prices have dropped over the last two weeks after China's central and local governments rolled out measures to rein in surging food prices, but people like Wu are still feeling the pressure.

A report by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Tuesday that the prices of 18 types of staple vegetables for the week ending Nov 21 fell 2.6 percent from the previous week.

Despite being a good sign, the fall seemed to be trivial compared to the year's vegetable price inflation.

Another MOC report conducted during the first week of November showed that prices for the 18 vegetables across 36 cities had risen 62.4 percent from a year earlier. The average wholesale price stood at 3.9 yuan per kilo in the same period, up 11.3 percent from the beginning of the year.