RE: We Are Alive! May 26th, 2022 Quick Trip to the Grocery Store
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One of the strange distortions in the world economy is that locals end up paying more for exported crops than the people in the nations that import the crop. The distortion is usually caused by taxation and regulation.
I understand that Panama produces coffee and that it is a good source for premium arabica beans. What are the coffee prices in Panama?
!BEER
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Yes, there is a lot of coffee grown here, and the fancy ones like geisha. If I go to a local farm, I can pay $5 for a pound (I believe). It is usually $1 more at the stores and I hear it is good. I don't like coffee at all, so don't ask for my opinion on the taste! Ha!
Coffee is a cash crop that grows year round throughout the tropics; so it makes a decent economic indicator.
Coffee starts around $10 a pound in the US. People in Venezuela were saying it was twice as expensive as that ... which blew my mind. It should be significantly less expensive (and better quality) in the country where it grows.
I looked today and it was around $7 for about a pound at a local grocery store for the cheaper kind that is made in town. I know you can get around 250g of beans of geisha for $14 here. It is pretty crazy. We live in the breadbasket of Panama where 90% of the country's crops are. We can drive up the road and get 20 pounds of veggies in a bag (called a puerca) for $5-6. If you hand select your produce it is more expensive. I'm glad we have such fresh produce available close and cheap, but many Panamanians don't eat fresh veggies...they prefer processed stuff, bakeries, chips, rice, beans.
What is most amazing about the tropics is that the food is available all year round. I guess things change with wet and dry seasons, but I suspect that it would be easier to live in climates without such pronounced seasons.
In Northern climates people have to process foods during the fall harvest so that they can eat in the Winter. If I lived in a place with fresh local produce all year round, I would make it the mainstay of my diet.
Thanks for the info!
WINE!
Love this conversation, thank you!