SHANGHAI, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A major insurance company has launched an insurance program in Shanghai to help stabilize vegetable prices amid the coronavirus outbreak.

File photo: VCG

The program will compensate vegetable suppliers in the city when the prices of agricultural products in the production bases are higher than in Shanghai, said Ma Xin, vice president of the China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC).

Headquartered in Shanghai, CPIC is one of China's leading insurance companies with more than 80 million customers.

To protect low-income people in the city, the company also developed a "vegetable basket" price index insurance. It will subsidize people when vegetables become too expensive for them to consume.

The daily supply of vegetables was about 3,000 tonnes in Shanghai, a local official said last week.