China's top economic planner has asked the nation's major producers of edible oil to restrain from price hikes for four months, the 21st Century Business Herald reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) held a meeting last week with four major edible oil producers and asked them not to raise the prices for small-package edible oil before March 2011, an industry insider told reporters.

The four producers at the meeting were China Oil and Food Corp, Yihai Kerry, China National Textiles Import and Export Corp and Jiusan Group. The four control an estimated 80 percent of China's small-package edible oil market, a Southern Metropolis Daily report said.

An oil producing company said the move, although targeting only big companies, can actually affect the entire edible oil market.

Small-package edible oil witnessed a price hike of about 10 percent at the end of October due to surging international soybean prices.

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A staff member for an oil producer said the current edible oil industry is running deficits, because first-class soybean oil prices have climbed more than 30 percent since July. He said prices have increased for other materials, too.

The staff member said the move by the NDRC can only serve as a makeshift measure, and, as a consequence, there might be a weeding out of some enterprises and a supply shortage.

The NDRC adopted similar measure to curb an edible oil price hike in 2008 and offered subsidies to relevant enterprises.