“The prices of fruit and vegetables have caught everyone’s attention. Pork as well,” said Chenjun Pan, executive director of food and agriculture at RaboResearch.

Experts are also watching the spread of a pest called the fall armyworm, a sort of caterpillar that likes to eat rice, sorghum and corn crops. More than 350 square miles of crops have been ravaged, according to official media, though the full impact on crop prices may not be felt until later in the year.

Food prices are rising at a sensitive time. President Xi Jinping has signaled tough times ahead as tensions rise with the United States. Data released on Friday suggest that a nascent economic uptick is beginning to wane and that China could slip back into a slowdown. In March, Mr. Li, the premier, acknowledged that the economy faced pressures as Beijing lowered its expectations for growth this year.

The government has long worried about inflation. It played a role in huge public protests in Tiananmen Square 30 years ago; the anniversary of the government’s violent suppression of the protests is this week . Steep inflation in the 1990s threatened to derail efforts to open the Chinese economy.

For now, the price increases appear limited to food, thanks in part to China’s uncertain economic situation. Rising rents have cooled to single-digit percentage growth this year. Wage increases have slowed, and unemployment is rising. At China’s factories, prices for raw materials and other goods appear tame. China still suffers from excess factory capacity in cars, steel and other industries, meaning production could quickly ramp up if prices rise.

“I don’t think inflation is a big issue for China so far,” said Yu Yongding, a prominent economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an elite government institution in Beijing.

Chinese workers also have little leverage for seeking higher wages, another possible contributor to inflation. Job losses are already a problem among young white-collar workers as the country’s tech sector has slowed over the winter and spring.