Are Certain Fruits/Vegetables More Expensive Because They’re Harder to Grow or They’re More Popular to Consume/Tastier?

Pelicannn on 20/07/2022 - 10:52
Last edited 20/07/2022 - 10:52

Look I don’t know what it is… but it seems my expensive taste also includes fruits and vegetables.

I love raspberries, blueberries, mangoes, apricots, peaches, cherries etc but when it comes to apples and oranges, pears… the fruit that’s cheaper by the kilo significantly, I don’t like the taste nearly half as much.

Same with vegetables, snap peas and snow peas, green beans, asparagus etc I can’t get enough of, but carrots? 🤮

So it got me wondering:

  1. Am I the only one who prefers fruit/veg that happens to be more expensive?

  2. Is that fruit/veg more expensive because they’re harder to grow/more labour intensive and therefore reflected by a higher price? Or is it more expensive because they’re more popular and they know consumers will pay the price?

Food & Grocery

Comments

  • Benoffie on 20/07/2022 - 10:53
    +10

    You're probably eating them out of season.

    I love berries. But Christmas is berry season. Same goes for the others - learn their season and stick to that.

  • orangetrain on 20/07/2022 - 11:02
    -1

    It could be cartel or profit maximising behaviour when they send perfectly fine produce to garbage too. Otherwise over long term, consumers would expect lower prices for those produce.

  • CrispyChrispy on 20/07/2022 - 11:03
    +5

    As what Willowtea has said, it's more so whether the fruit is in or out of season. I work in a fresh produce store.

    raspberries, blueberries, mangoes, apricots, peaches, cherries

    These are mostly seasonal fruits. Peaches and nectarines can be up to $30/kg some times of the year, and drop to $1.99/kg other parts of the year when in season. Sometimes they won't even be available at all in the store.

    • Pelicannn on 20/07/2022 - 11:07

      On the same train of thought though, I’ve never seen apples for $30 a kilo haha

      • freefall101 on 20/07/2022 - 11:22
        +9

        Apples can be harvested and stored for out of season consumption, rather than importing them. They're put in atmosphere controlled storage that essentially make them hibernate. If you're buying an apple in October, it was almost certainly picked months before.

        Mangoes though, if you buy one out of season it's almost certainly imported. And the growing season is really short. But getting a mango in season costs next to nothing.

        Need to think about transportation and picking difficulty too. It's harder to pick a berry than an apple.

  • FLICKIT on 20/07/2022 - 11:17
    +7

    Most the things you mention, berries and such, have a VERY short shelf life and they're fragile, they basically need to be picked and transported to a store within a day or so, and then they need to be sold in a day or two also, unlike carrots or apples that are fairly robust and they can sit in cool stores for months…The transport/Logistics costs of the berries and the likes would be quite high compared to the more robust fruit & veg…

  • GG57 on 20/07/2022 - 11:17
    +1

    A combination of a lot of things.
    Seasonal availability drives prices.
    Shelf life drive prices.
    Local or imported (or from the other side of the country) drives prices.

  • PeterA07 on 20/07/2022 - 11:22
    +5

    Consider the fruit examples that you have provided. Compared to apples, berries are more labour-intensive to pick; are more susceptible to damage in sorting, packaging and transit; and deteriorate much faster. So: harder to produce, and higher wastage.

    Then there's seasonality. To respond to your comment above about apples: it's true that apples are a seasonal fruit, but across all varieties the "season" is spread out over about half the year. As for the other half of the year, apples can be kept in a controlled storage environment for many months. That's why certain varieties can be found pretty much all year around. The availability chart on this page gives you a good idea of just how stretched-out the apple production process can be.

    The same applies to the vegetables. Carrots are relatively cheap because they are robust, have long seasons and can be stored for long periods of time.

  • DrSwag on 20/07/2022 - 11:32

    Why not both ¯_(ツ)_/¯

  • Eatslikeacat on 20/07/2022 - 12:21
    +1

    It's likely seasonal and also the cost of taking it to market. Avocados were recently being thrown away by farmers as it was cheaper to throw them away than to transport them to market (very sad). Farmers, wholesalers, and retailers will of course try to sell them for the highest price that they can get. Market forces prevail and if there is an oversupply then prices fall. I for one like feijoa's but I haven't seen a feijoa for sale in years.

  • ESEMCE on 20/07/2022 - 12:56
    +2

    None of your fruits or vegetables that you've listed have long shelf lives.
    As a result, they are seasonal and must be imported (by air) when out of season.
    They're cheaper in season when local supply is high, but expensive out of season as transport costs are very high and transportable volume is low.

    Apples and Pears store well, so a single crop per year can be sold across the year.
    Oranges have 2 main varieties that fruit at opposite times of year.
    So they're available year round.

  • GG57 on 20/07/2022 - 13:17
    +5

    To perhaps summarise most of the above responses:

    You are trying to compare apples and oranges….

    • SF3 on 20/07/2022 - 13:20
      +1

      or Supply vs Demand.

  • prodrome on 20/07/2022 - 13:30

    The main is reason is because they’re harder to grow

    It take 5+ years for fruit tree to grow and there is a lot of manual labour involved. This means 5+ years without an income and only expenses.

    • Quantumcat on 20/07/2022 - 15:02
      +1

      Apples are cheap though. It is because of transport, storage and picking difficulty as stated above.

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