BEIJING -- Farm produce prices in 36 major Chinese cities have declined for a third week, new official data showed.

The Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday in an online statement that the average wholesale prices for 18 vegetables on the monitored list fell 2.2 percent week on week during the period of March 4 to 10.

The decrease brought the total price drop to 16.4 percent from that of three weeks before, the statement said.

It was attributed to abundant supply in the country's northern regions.

The wholesale price of pork, a staple meat, fell 1.5 percent week on week, while the price of beef and mutton saw declines of 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.

Food prices account for about one-third of the prices used to calculate the consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation.

China's CPI grew by a 10-month high of 3.2 percent in February, due to rising food prices during the Spring Festival, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on March 9.