Why is fruit/vegetables so cheap despite the time and resources needed to produce them?
In: Economics
If you want to grow 1 carrot, you’ll need a lot of preparation, time, and equipment compared to the output. If you want to grow 100.000 carrots, the amount of equipment, preparation and time doesn’t increase by the same amount. If you want to grow 1 million carrots, you’ll be churning out carrots at a rate that pushes price down.
ETA Thank you kindly for the awards
On a per-unit basis, the time and resources needed to produce them is almost nothing. Yeah the farmer works 7 days a week, but he does so to produce a proportionately huge volume of produce. Machinery and automation (sprinklers, harvesting machines, pesticide distribution.etc) have allowed it to scale up and remain profitable.
This post has been locked as there are several good answers and most of the new top-level comments are anecdotal or off-topic.
Migrant immigrant labor is a big part of it. You get paid something like $2 a flat picking blueberries, strawberries is maybe double but its backbreaking. Piece work basically,with no insurance or benefits. Bananas are cheap because the banana republics still exist ruled by American led dictatorships. Chocolate is still cheap because its produced in the 3rd world with the backing of Nestle, aka the most evil corporation on the planet. A lot of chicken is cheap because they ship it to china for processing.
Fruit/vegetables are cheap?
Here’s a fun YouTube (https://youtu.be/URvWSsAgtJE) showing economies of scale. This guy spends 6 months and $1500 to make just one sandwich completely from scratch
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