A consumer carefully considers a pricey head of cabbage at a supermarket in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture.

Consumers are being walloped with sticker shock in the produce aisle as an aftereffect of this year's record onslaught of typhoons. Crops and distribution routes have been wiped out or disrupted, and prices are soaring as a result.

Wholesale lettuce prices, especially, are up, by as much as eight-fold this month in Tokyo. For example, a 10-kilogram box of lettuce from Ibaraki Prefecture was being traded for 1,575 yen on Oct 1.

But prices in the aftermath of Typhoon No. 23 jumped to 12,600 yen on Thursday and Friday, according to the Metropolitan Central Wholesale Ota Market in Tokyo's Ota Ward. That roughly amounts to 700 yen a head, wholesale.

Cabbage grown in Gunma Prefecture went for 840 yen per 10 kilograms on Oct. 1, but by Thursday and Friday had peaked at 3,150 yen.

According to the Japan Agricultural Cooperations Tokyo Mirai chapter that has a direct outlet in Higashimurayama, vegetables are in short supply, and prices are high.

Typhoons inundated vegetable patches with water, causing vegetables to rot.

Customers were lining up way before opening hours, and almost all the produce was gone by 10:30 a.m. on Friday.

A Tokyo agriculture cooperative official summed up the situation, saying, ``Produce is selling well, but we don't have much to offer.'' He predicted there may be no let-up until well into the fall season.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Typhoon No. 23 destroyed rice and soybean crops that were ready to be harvested and flooded apple and mikan (tangerine) orchards.

To combat the typhoon effect, the agriculture ministry is advocating the harvest of produce earlier in the season; hastening the production of soft green vegetables like spinach, and promoting the shipment of B-quality vegetables, such as crooked cucumbers.

Some consumers are already holding out against leafy vegetables by substituting root vegetables whenever they can.

Farmers are hurting everywhere.

Many lettuce patches in Iwai, Ibaraki Prefecture, a major lettuce growing community, were flooded by the recent typhoon.

``There's a lot being said about high prices, but if we can't harvest any, there's no profit for us,'' said one weary farmer.

According to the Iwai agricultural co-op, this is the worst season in a decade. Whereas the co-op should be shipping 27,000 to 30,000 cases of lettuce a day at this time, on Thursday, after being pounded by Typhoon No. 23, 2,500 cases went out.(IHT/Asahi: October 23,2004) (10/23)