BEIJING - The Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday that China's farm produce prices continued to fall last week as supplies increased.

Egg prices dropped 1.8 percent from one week earlier, marking the seventh consecutive week of decline. The prices were down 4.2 percent cumulatively from early January, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Vegetable prices fell for a third straight week. The wholesale prices of 18 types of vegetables fell 0.7 percent week-on-week and were down 11 percent from late January.

The prices of green peppers and cucumbers slid 8.1 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, according to the statement.

Pork, mutton and chicken prices retreated by 1.3 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent last week, respectively, while the wholesale prices of eight types of aquatic products edged up by 0.1 percent.

The fall in farm produce prices may help ease domestic inflationary pressures as food prices have a one-third weighting in the calculation of China's consumer price index (CPI).

The CPI rebounded to 4.5 percent in January after easing to a 15-month low of 4.1 percent in December.