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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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periwinkle
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 5:08 pm Post subject: Expensive fruit |
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This has been done before, but I don't remember the answers. Why is fruit so expensive? Imported or domestic, it doesn't matter. [Well, bananas are imported, and they're often the cheapest]. Vegetables are often cheap (besides potatoes, which I think are overpriced), so you can't argue that it's a lack of arable land (grow veggies, rice, fruit, or raise animals- it's 6:1, half a dozen or the other- simplistic, but you get my point). If they're out of season, I get it, but in season, they're still ridiculously priced. I received a lg. box of domestic apples this fall, and the box was estimated around 70,000 won!!
Also, why are strawberries in season in the winter? I made a strawberry pie last night, and man, it was weird to eat strawberry pie in January... |
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vlcupper
Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I think it's probably the same reason electronics are so freaking expensive. It's probably a closed market so the one or two companies out there selling fruit charge whatever they want. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:40 pm Post subject: |
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| I was told by a farmer that it's because there are too many middlemen. |
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just because
Joined: 01 Aug 2003
Location: Changwon - 4964
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:16 am Post subject: |
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Market protectionism for the domestic market and import taxes that are levied on overseas fruits and vegetables..
I don't have the exact stats but Korea has some of the highest tariffs in the world for fruits and vegies...
Because of this the domestic market can keep its prices artificially high as well as they know the overseas product will be more expensive due to these tariffs...
Why do you think the farmers are going crazy about free trade...because if it goes through the price of a lot of fruits and vegetables(and rice) here will plummet as will the amount of money they make |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 12:52 am Post subject: |
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| just because wrote: |
Market protectionism for the domestic market and import taxes that are levied on overseas fruits and vegetables..
I don't have the exact stats but Korea has some of the highest tariffs in the world for fruits and vegies...
Because of this the domestic market can keep its prices artificially high as well as they know the overseas product will be more expensive due to these tariffs...
Why do you think the farmers are going crazy about free trade...because if it goes through the price of a lot of fruits and vegetables(and rice) here will plummet as will the amount of money they make |
Yes, because it's not the farmers who take the lion's share of the profits, but the wholesalers and retailers. For this reason, the farmers know that they will be the ones left to suffer while the wholesalers and retailers will pull through relatively unscathed. |
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Gorgias
Joined: 27 Aug 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:08 am Post subject: |
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| Not only are produce prices a joke, but variety is very, very sad. I read last year that 94 percent of food product available in Korea is local. But don't worry friends; once free trade forces open the market, the Korean agricultural system will be genocided, and we can enjoy the reasonable prices and great selection available just about everywhere else in the world. |
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vlcupper
Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 2:15 am Post subject: |
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| just because wrote: |
Market protectionism for the domestic market and import taxes that are levied on overseas fruits and vegetables..
I don't have the exact stats but Korea has some of the highest tariffs in the world for fruits and vegies...
Because of this the domestic market can keep its prices artificially high as well as they know the overseas product will be more expensive due to these tariffs...
Why do you think the farmers are going crazy about free trade...because if it goes through the price of a lot of fruits and vegetables(and rice) here will plummet as will the amount of money they make |
I so can't wait for that day. I didn't feel sorry at all for the rice growers when the government opened the rice trade here.[/b] |
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Wrench
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 3:49 am Post subject: |
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| vlcupper wrote: |
| just because wrote: |
Market protectionism for the domestic market and import taxes that are levied on overseas fruits and vegetables..
I don't have the exact stats but Korea has some of the highest tariffs in the world for fruits and vegies...
Because of this the domestic market can keep its prices artificially high as well as they know the overseas product will be more expensive due to these tariffs...
Why do you think the farmers are going crazy about free trade...because if it goes through the price of a lot of fruits and vegetables(and rice) here will plummet as will the amount of money they make |
I so can't wait for that day. I didn't feel sorry at all for the rice growers when the government opened the rice trade here.[/b] |
Maybe they will not have outrages prices on electronics as well.
Recently bought a PSP in Japan Value pack for 204k won.. In Korea its 325k won for the same deal. |
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vlcupper
Joined: 12 Aug 2004
Location: Gangnam
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:24 am Post subject: |
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| Yeah, I bought an mp3 player on base for 69 bucks. You should see the looks on my students faces when I tell them how cheap it was. And then I whip out my never-fail 20 dollar WalMart special portable CD player. |
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ChimpumCallao
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: your mom
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:19 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Yeah, I bought an mp3 player on base for 69 bucks. You should see the looks on my students faces when I tell them how cheap it was. And then I whip out my never-fail 20 dollar WalMart special portable CD player. |
yeah, my students were astonished that rice cookers in the states were about a third the price that they are here...but good little nationalists that they are they then reverted to the idea that korean rice cookers had more functions and were superior...this was why they were more expensive...of course! why do americans need rice cookers anyway? They just eat burgers and fries!!
seriously...i have no idea how a lower middle class family can live well....I guess they don't.
anyway, VC is right OP, fruit is expensive because they tariff the crap out of anything foreign (read: good and inexpensive). |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| I buy my fruits from the fresh produce market. Both the quality and price are better than the supermarkets. |
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Gorgias
Joined: 27 Aug 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:29 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I buy my fruits from the fresh produce market. Both the quality and price are better than the supermarkets. |
@tzechuk, you are 100% correct. Going to the 'shijang' is a better deal. I am some kind of fruit-maniac, so this thread is of special interest to me. Everywhere I go I try the fruit I see. I love fruit. What really broke my heart when I first got to Korea, wasn't the 5000W pears, apples and oranges, or the 20,000W watermelons, or even the time I saw an "apple mango" for 40,000W; what kills me is that there are just no lychee varieties, mangosteen (my number one world favorite fruite), guava, jackfruit varieties, there is one or maybe two kinds of pears and one or two kinds of apples, no guava, only a few varieties of berries, and so on. Don't even get me started on herbs and veggies. I guess most people don't much care about fruit, but I've tried more than twenty kinds of pears, all sorts of fruits and berries I don't even know the names of, and let me tell you, if fruit isn't important in your life, when you have a chance, try a new fruit or veg everyday, if you live in great produce regions like around the Med, or on the West Coast of N.America, you could go on eating a new kind of produce every day for just about a year. "Variety is the spice of life," well maybe that expression isn't popular in Korea, but these guys don't know what they are missing out on. In fairness, Korea does have a fair selection of oranges and citrus (but no pomelos), the Korean pear is a nice representitive of the "apple pear" family, and once I saw a dragon fruit here.
Fruit: Exciting taste, energy, good blood sugars, fructose for the brain, natural acids, low cal, a great variety of vitamins and enzimes.... |
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MeanyMichi
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Location: SNOW!!!
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:12 am Post subject: |
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| ChimpumCallao wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Yeah, I bought an mp3 player on base for 69 bucks. You should see the looks on my students faces when I tell them how cheap it was. And then I whip out my never-fail 20 dollar WalMart special portable CD player. |
yeah, my students were astonished that rice cookers in the states were about a third the price that they are here...but good little nationalists that they are they then reverted to the idea that korean rice cookers had more functions and were superior...this was why they were more expensive...of course! why do americans need rice cookers anyway? They just eat burgers and fries!!
seriously...i have no idea how a lower middle class family can live well....I guess they don't.
anyway, VC is right OP, fruit is expensive because they tariff the crap out of anything foreign (read: good and inexpensive). |
I agree about other electronics, but am not so sure about the rice cookers.
My rice cooker here was half the price of the one I have in Canada, and it keeps the rice hot longer (I'd say at least 4 ~ 5x as long) without drying it out as much.
Fruit... one of the reasons to look forward to moving back to Canada, I guess. Though tropical fruits aren't cheap there, either.
I remember staying at my grandfather's house in South America when I was younger. When I was hungry all I needed to do was go into the back yard and pick myself some mangoes, guavas, papayas, grapefruit, oranges or mandarins. It was heaven (except for the few scorpions that also lived in the back yard). |
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chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:19 am Post subject: |
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| I have been eating ten tangerines a day for the past month. My wife now purchases them by the box and has them delivered. |
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Mr. Pink
Joined: 21 Oct 2003
Location: China
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2006 2:31 pm Post subject: |
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Let me pose this situation:
You goto a Korean supermarket and buy Cherries, they are usually a minimum 10,000 won per box. You goto COSTCO and they are like 3-4k a box.
I noticed COSTCO's fruit is reasonably priced in comparison to some of the Korean supermarkets.
The cheapest fruit I have found over all has been at COSTCO. It is almost all imported, and whatever tariff's they pay can't be too high. Costco just doesn't screw you over like most Korean fruit sellers do.
Costco's veggies suck on selection, if you goto Seoul, Yangjae Costco, nearby is the korean farmers market...they have one of the best veggie selections out there.
Anyways, good luck with your over priced fruit. I only eat cherries and apples...and my wife finds cheap apples for me  |
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