A strange thing is happening in the kitchens of Australia !
Once upon a time the cheapest way to create a meal was to buy fruit and vegetables from the greengrocer and process them yourself. Now it is far cheaper to buy them peeled, washed and ready to cook from the frozen food display.
The price of fruit and vegetables has taken a huge jump in recent years as the big supermarket chains screw the farm gate price ever lower - and escalate the retail price ever higher.
The food processing people are also bulk buyers and pay a similar low price for their supplies, with the result that in many cases the price of their end product compares favourably with fresh !
Take the humble potato as an example. At the greengrocer a medium sized spud can easily set you back 50 c. Go to the frozen food section and you will find a kilo of crinkle cut chips for as low as $ 1.20 - and now a whole range of frozen potato in sliced, mashed and many other forms - ready for the oven.
The greed of the supermarket chains is now throwing processed fruit and vegetables out of price kilter with fresh !
Unfortunately this distortion will be reflected in job losses as canny shoppers switch from the washing/peeling/slicing chore to " ready for the oven " mode.
It takes fewer factory hands to process the produce than the huge army necessary to bring fresh to market, prepare it for display, pass it through the checkout and put it in the customer's kitchen.
We live in a strange world where doing the hard labour of preparing a meal actually makes the end product more expensive !
No comments:
Post a Comment