to think some things not right about 50p pineapples from south america in UK supermarkets?

[MarieNE]

I don't get how they can be sold so cheaply when they come from across the world and they don't grow abudently like say apples on a tree. I thought each plant only produces one fruit? They were not this cheap in Peru, although were alot better quality!

correct, it isn't right. Huge amount of food miles and waste of resources. Supermarket loss-leading and pressuring suppliers.

don't buy.

quite agree it seems really wrong. I try to buy only British stuff (with lapses for oranges from Spain). Surely they can only be that cheap if someone is being sorely exploited.

Ever heard the term 'loss leader'? Put out a prominent line at a cheap price, sell it at a loss, get the word out and hope people come into your shop to buy it.... plus lots of other things while they are there.

thats right, like milk is a loss leader which has brought the British dairy industry to its knees.

I'm not sure for the pineapple but for some produce it's not so bad they're imported - they're often transported on passenger flights which are running anyway so no extra air miles. Also resource wise they're cheaper to grow in certain circumstances - e.g. for certain crops they're grown on small holdings and not mass farm produced so the small holder can be more economical with water. It's swings and roundabouts - do we not import any produce from abroad? It would cut down on air miles etc but what about people's livelihoods in poorer countries? It's a complicated balance I think.

The British dairy industry fragmented and gave into pressure to sell below an economic price.... :) It's not a loss leader when you do that, it's commercial suicide.

@annielouise.... the vast majority of imported produce is shipped, not flown. Far cheaper and not as environmentally damaging.

a lot of stuff is flown in AFAIK on cargo planes

Not as much as is popularly believed. Refrigerated shipping is very sophisticated.

oh OK thanks for good info, I thought that an awful lot of it was flown in

It's now not difficult to stop the ripening process during a sea voyage.

The ethical dilemma between exploiting farmers in poorer countries and supporting them by buying their cash crops is a hard one - but I believe the Fair Trade movement has done a lot to help.

Some things like flowers and the more delicate, short-life items... green beans from Kenya for example... are flown in, but the expense is horrendous. You'll find more air-freighted products on the market in the pre-Christmas period (grapes, stone-fruit) because shoppers will pay very high prices in order to have exotics on the table at the time of year. Post Christmas the same goods arrive by sea because no-one has any money....

I'm very at Lidl and Aldi and how they manage to be so cheap. Some massive screwing over of suppliers going on there.

I supply supermarkets. It's their job to get the best price & there are some dodgy tactics employed but there is nothing whatsoever stopping a supplier saying 'I'm not serving you at that price'. The ones who agree to it.... like the milk producers... are just commercially inept.

but if the milk suppliers had done that, what would they have done with all the milk?

If the milk suppliers had walked away, how would the retailer have explained the empty shelves to their customers?..... Cuts both ways,

I see yes

don't buy

But then surely all those food miles and wasted resources become doubly wasteful? 50p for a pineapple could be a huge treat for a family on the bread line, and some much needed vitamins. Not buying it on principal to me is just as wasteful.

you don't really think that the 50p you pay for a pinapple in tesco's goes straight to a hungry family do you?

I think the hungry family is the one in the uk.......

There are lots of reasons a pineapple could be 50p. One is loss leader as previously said. Another could be a commercially inept importer agreeing to a too-cheap price under pressure. Or the pineapples were causing the importer a problem, stacking up in the cold-store and they needed to get shot fast or risk them all ending up as landfill. Or the importer got a great price for the other lines in his portfolio and used it to cross-subsidise the pineapples....

Lots of reasons

in economic theory the basic premise of a 'fair price' is there is a market with a large number of buyers and sellers. this means no one person buying or selling has more power than anyone else.

with milk, you have few buyers (the big supermarkets) and many sellers (farmers) so the buyers have power over the sellers so they use it.

the solution is to have more supermarkets chains.

being nosy here, cogito what do you supply?
it really is a minefield, I used to try and avoid all air freighted stuff but it's not that simple. Plus stuff grown here in UK mayhave a higher carbon footprint if grown under glass compared to somewhere that is naturally sunny.

I agree though that if it's there in the shop for 50p you may as well buy it!

I think the hungry family is the one in the uk.......

Exactly still, I thought that was obvious. It's cheap fruit. Sadly some people can't afford to be picky or pay three or four times the price on principal.

If you really wanted to be concerned about suppliers and growers being exploited and child slave labour, it would mean that Chocolate and Coffee being left on the shelf.

Compared to what the Cocoa Bean trade (and dairy) is doing to the planet, Pineapples for 50p is neither here or there.

Lidl and Aldi don't do badly on Ethical trading comparison websites, much better than Tesco, Asda etc.

There will be information about whether they are Loss Leaders or exploitative online.