Ponderings about food shopping...

[user123]

Howard just brought back some strawberries from our local greengrocer - they are from Egypt. £1.98 a punnet of around 15 strawberries.

I wonder how much will end up in the Egyptian farmers' pocket, how much in the airlines' pocket, how much in the import duty office's pocket and how much in the various middlemen's pockets until it arrives at the shop up the road, and he, good man as he is, is entitled to some profit, too...

 

[Ian]

I bet the farmer would be lucky if he gets a penny per strawberry.

 

[SandyFloor]

Probably started with twenty strawberries too and Howard just couldn't resist on the way home :drool5:

 

[doug boardley]

I've posted on fb Gisela

 

[Deleted member 9966]

it is a sad fact of a farmers life. I was watching The People's Supermarket on Channel 4 on sunday night. a guy is opening his own supermarket inviting around 500 people to "invest" by becoming members and running the store on a volunteer basis, and the suppliers he will use will be the same as any other supermarket, but his aim is to get his suppliers having more profit whilst his store is making a profit. he's doing it for other reasons of course, like to show the Big 4 supermarkets that independent stores can also be competitive, but it was really interesting to hear about the farmers who actually make a loss per litre of milk they produce from their dairy farms because the big supermarkets have screwed them down on price so they can cream off the profits in the supermarket.

 

[Dan]

I don't think there's import tax on unprocessed food. Not 100%. There aint VAT on sugar, coffee etc anyway.

But yeah, the farmer won't get much, but to be fair he only does a small percentage of the job. If he didn't export, he'd manage with a tiny patch just for locals. So don't assume the farmers all don't do well. They do pretty damn good in the UK, even when they're moaning about bad times they're still making profit normally.

Not too sure if it still goes on, but to support the EU trade, farmers in the Uk were paid to tip milk away! That aint a bad job.

 

[Dan]

it is a sad fact of a farmers life. I was watching The People's Supermarket on Channel 4 on sunday night. a guy is opening his own supermarket inviting around 500 people to "invest" by becoming members and running the store on a volunteer basis, and the suppliers he will use will be the same as any other supermarket, but his aim is to get his suppliers having more profit whilst his store is making a profit. he's doing it for other reasons of course, like to show the Big 4 supermarkets that independent stores can also be competitive, but it was really interesting to hear about the farmers who actually make a loss per litre of milk they produce from their dairy farms because the big supermarkets have screwed them down on price so they can cream off the profits in the supermarket.

Wonder if he'll get involved in the price fixing meetings for milk and butter :lol:

 

[Stewart]

I know quite a few farmers and none of them are poor. As Dan says they're selling to a much bigger Market than just their local one so probably have a much higher turnover with a slickly higher profit margin compared to if they stayed local.

 

[Diamond Pool Finishers]

yes middle men!!!!creatures all of them

 

[user123]

I don't think there's import tax on unprocessed food. Not 100%. There aint VAT on sugar, coffee etc anyway.

But yeah, the farmer won't get much, but to be fair he only does a small percentage of the job. If he didn't export, he'd manage with a tiny patch just for locals. So don't assume the farmers all don't do well. They do pretty damn good in the UK, even when they're moaning about bad times they're still making profit normally.

Not too sure if it still goes on, but to support the EU trade, farmers in the Uk were paid to tip milk away! That aint a bad job.

I was just genuinely wondering, without judgement... these were perfect looking large strawberries, but very hard and not very tasty, the fruit I tasted in Cairo fresh from the market was battered but incredibly tasty, and with all the news surrounding Egypt it just got me thinking about what really happens. In Egypt anything imported, like shampoos for example or cornflakes, are much much more expensive than Egyptian food and everyone seems to know about it and shop accordingly - Egypt's own cornflakes were incredibly tasty, much nicer than sugary Kelloggs, and around 5th of the price! Saad kept telling me to go for the more expensive imported stuff, I think he was worried that I would not be used to their local food, but I genuinely preferred it, there was little to be seen with artificial flavouring even though all the incredients were listed on the packets... the shampoo I got was wonderful. For those into food and shopping, basically it was like our farmhouse or healthfood shopping, but much much cheaper, face oils and jasmine and ginger oils, for pennies... it just made me wonder if it made a difference to the farmer exporting these strawberries or selling them on the very busy local markets ....

 

[mikethetile]

theres a madness in this world G and its centred around money, why are we importing tasteless food and paying through the nose for it, we expect to get out of season fruit and veg any time of the year from supermarkets- why?

taste is sacrificed for appearence and longevity- why do we still buy it?

who makes the biggest markup and who has the buying power ?

the answer is to stay out of supermarkets and shop with your local traders, eat food in season and grow what you can

 

[user123]

theres a madness in this world G and its centred around money, why are we importing tasteless food and paying through the nose for it, we expect to get out of season fruit and veg any time of the year from supermarkets- why?

taste is sacrificed for appearence and longevity- why do we still buy it?

who makes the biggest markup and who has the buying power ?

the answer is to stay out of supermarkets and shop with your local traders, eat food in season and grow what you can

Mike, H bought the strawberries from our local small greengrocer, because he felt like some it's a family business that has been there for a couple of generations - they get their goods from Hull market... no supermarket veg for us.

 

[mikethetile]

Mike, H bought the strawberries from our local small greengrocer, because he felt like some it's a family business that has been there for a couple of generations - they get their goods from Hull market... no supermarket veg for us.

Im pleased to hear it, what a shame they were tasteless and im pleased that you support your local economy