Today I bought a large (and heavy) pineapple in the local store for £0.99p! The attached label says it was produced in Costa Rica. I have been to Costa Rica - it is a very long way away. I googled it - 5500 miles or 8851 kilometres infact. I remember an 11 hour + flight. (an aside - Costa Rica is an incredible country - one of the most bio diverse in the world. I remember swimming in the wonderfully warm Pacific - with Pelicans diving for fish and Howler monkeys sat on the beach!)
I don't know much about how pineapples grow. I know they do not grow on trees and I know you get one per plant. I googled an explanation :
" Even though pineapples are considered a fruit (and a fruit generally comes from trees — unless it’s a berry), pineapples actually grow on a plant close to the ground. Each pineapple plant bears exactly one pineapple. So where did pineapple come from in the first place? How exactly does a pineapple grow? Pretty easily, actually. A pineapple starts and ends as the same product — that is to say, you need a pineapple to grow a pineapple. Pineapples don’t really have usable seeds, so pineapple plants start from the pineapple itself, or more specifically, from the leafy top. In a tropical climate, a pineapple head can be placed directly into the ground. Just be patient, though. Once the pineapple head takes root, it’ll take two to three years before it starts bearing fruit. It’ll grow to be almost 4 feet high by 4 feet wide. Once it’s matured, a large flower will grow in the middle of the plant and eventually be replaced by the pineapple itself. Once the pineapple is harvested, a new fruit will grow in its place the following year. A lot of work for one pineapple."
Ok - remember I only paid 99p today!
So the plant takes 3 or 4 years to mature. It is nurtured and looked after by the farmer and his staff. Then you get one pineapple per year. (I don't know for how many years thereafter).
It then has to be harvested. It has to be transported. Pineapples are heavy and bulky. I wonder what the terrain is like? I did quite a long journey by bus in Costa Rica - from the airport to the place I was staying. The roads were challenging. Very steep hills and decents, sharp bends - indifferent surfaces. ( The journey took the best part of a day. I flew back in a 10 seater light aircraft - it took less than an hour ).
At some stage the pineapples are labelled and graded and packed. Would this be done on the farm or are they transported to a local distribution centre first?
The pineapple is presumably loaded into a container and shipped to the UK (carefully because they are easily bruised and damaged.) I cannot imagine they are flown for cost reasons.
How many people and machines and vehicles have been involved so far? Don't forget the crane driver loading the container on the ship ! What wages have been paid. What profit has the farmer made out of the 99p!?
How long will it take for a container ship to steam 5500 miles across the wild Atlantic on its way to Felixstowe or Southampton. How much fuel used. Presumably the pineapples have to be chilled throughout. Surely it must take a week to get here at least.
The containers are unloaded. One per massive lorry to the Supermarket distribution centre - where ever that is - or does it go to Covent Garden (Nine Elms) fruit market first?
Eventually the container cargo has to be split and reloaded for shipment by lorry down to the Isle of Wight - with the added expense (and time) of the cross Solent ferry crossing.
It arrives at the local supermarket - more hands to unload - and then out onto the shelves for the likes of me to buy for 99p!
How much money does the Supermarket make out of the 99p. The lion share of the profit I would guess. How does this whole journey hang together. Surely it means subsistence wages for many involved and will there be any real profit at all for the local farmer or cooperative who grew it? And what about the environmental cost - all that diesel fuel - including for the massive container ship!
I guess the answer lies in economies of scale. Thousands and thousands of pineapples grown, transported and distributed at the same time. It does make you speculate about the benefits and efficacy of "local and seasonal sourcing" though! Stating the obvious - without such ingenuity and enterprise we would not be eating pineapples in the UK and even if we could , they would be much more expensive than £0.99p!
I don't know much about how pineapples grow. I know they do not grow on trees and I know you get one per plant. I googled an explanation :
" Even though pineapples are considered a fruit (and a fruit generally comes from trees — unless it’s a berry), pineapples actually grow on a plant close to the ground. Each pineapple plant bears exactly one pineapple. So where did pineapple come from in the first place? How exactly does a pineapple grow? Pretty easily, actually. A pineapple starts and ends as the same product — that is to say, you need a pineapple to grow a pineapple. Pineapples don’t really have usable seeds, so pineapple plants start from the pineapple itself, or more specifically, from the leafy top. In a tropical climate, a pineapple head can be placed directly into the ground. Just be patient, though. Once the pineapple head takes root, it’ll take two to three years before it starts bearing fruit. It’ll grow to be almost 4 feet high by 4 feet wide. Once it’s matured, a large flower will grow in the middle of the plant and eventually be replaced by the pineapple itself. Once the pineapple is harvested, a new fruit will grow in its place the following year. A lot of work for one pineapple."
Ok - remember I only paid 99p today!
So the plant takes 3 or 4 years to mature. It is nurtured and looked after by the farmer and his staff. Then you get one pineapple per year. (I don't know for how many years thereafter).
It then has to be harvested. It has to be transported. Pineapples are heavy and bulky. I wonder what the terrain is like? I did quite a long journey by bus in Costa Rica - from the airport to the place I was staying. The roads were challenging. Very steep hills and decents, sharp bends - indifferent surfaces. ( The journey took the best part of a day. I flew back in a 10 seater light aircraft - it took less than an hour ).
At some stage the pineapples are labelled and graded and packed. Would this be done on the farm or are they transported to a local distribution centre first?
The pineapple is presumably loaded into a container and shipped to the UK (carefully because they are easily bruised and damaged.) I cannot imagine they are flown for cost reasons.
How many people and machines and vehicles have been involved so far? Don't forget the crane driver loading the container on the ship ! What wages have been paid. What profit has the farmer made out of the 99p!?
How long will it take for a container ship to steam 5500 miles across the wild Atlantic on its way to Felixstowe or Southampton. How much fuel used. Presumably the pineapples have to be chilled throughout. Surely it must take a week to get here at least.
The containers are unloaded. One per massive lorry to the Supermarket distribution centre - where ever that is - or does it go to Covent Garden (Nine Elms) fruit market first?
Eventually the container cargo has to be split and reloaded for shipment by lorry down to the Isle of Wight - with the added expense (and time) of the cross Solent ferry crossing.
It arrives at the local supermarket - more hands to unload - and then out onto the shelves for the likes of me to buy for 99p!
How much money does the Supermarket make out of the 99p. The lion share of the profit I would guess. How does this whole journey hang together. Surely it means subsistence wages for many involved and will there be any real profit at all for the local farmer or cooperative who grew it? And what about the environmental cost - all that diesel fuel - including for the massive container ship!
I guess the answer lies in economies of scale. Thousands and thousands of pineapples grown, transported and distributed at the same time. It does make you speculate about the benefits and efficacy of "local and seasonal sourcing" though! Stating the obvious - without such ingenuity and enterprise we would not be eating pineapples in the UK and even if we could , they would be much more expensive than £0.99p!
No comments:
Post a Comment