Reply to: Food Prices around Europe

[Joe Black]

Spartacus,...could it be that the supermarkets have monopolised food retail and have free reign over their pricing in the island market place of the UK ?

Milan.

Milan, I'm beginning to worry about you. Was your life in the UK that bad?

Joe in "I hope expat-syndrome is not contagious" mode.

[hyperD]

Hyper,

you seen that Tescos in Budapest it's a monster.

Milan.

Hi Milan - no I haven't, I tend to spend most time in the eastern rural parts although have been to Budapest many times and can normally be found eating steak tartare and quaffing some Egri Bikaver (while keeping up the pretence that I actually like it) in the Kempinski.

I hear the store is quite large?

[milanbenes]

Hyper,

you seen that Tescos in Budapest it's a monster.

Milan.

[hyperD]

I've noticed in Eastern Hungary, those on low incomes will shop in Tescos for the cheap plastic tupperware, plates, cookware, bleaches, cleaning products and packet teas and other condiments. There's an attraction that "everything is under one roof" and avoids the dodgy radiactive stuff being sold in the Russian markets.

However, when it comes to food, the quality is better and cheaper at the local markets.

The ready meals are still viewed as a tasteless, overtly expensive waste of money although I've noticed over the last few years that this section of the market has grown significantly.

Funnily enough, this is true here as well.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a packet of Tesco salad that has had its nutrients removed due to washing in chlorinated water and packed in Modified Atmospheric Packaging when it takes 5 mins to prepare a salad from scratch.

Still, according to the adverts, I'm just a busy person that simply can't afford the time to cook nowadays... thank allah for ready made halal meals.

[DimPrawn]

That's swung it for me.

My house is up for sale, and I'm off to CZ in search of this potato mountain.

Fill yer boots!!!

[shaunbhoy]

I thought he'd just become a potato.

Not without some form of convoluted upgrade.

[milanbenes]

no my friend, they have John Deere tractors and Claas combines, biguns as well and many of them

as was written in a CZ business magazine that I was reading on the plane the other day (please excuse my bad cz grammar):

Old MacDonald mel fajn rok


The article was discussing CZ agriculture and how the farmers had a very good year


Milan.

[tim123]

blx the material cost of growing the spuds is next to zero

you think tractors and related machinery is free and diesel too and transport too

sorry Tim, with the greatest of respect, have to disagree on this one.

My opinion, physical man hours is on of the smallest cost contributors to the price of the spuds

Milan.

Wot, you mean that they don't still have Cart Horses and Waggons in CZ.

tim

[DiscoStu]

I thought he'd just become a potato.

It's a step up the evolutionary scale from tape changer.

[sasguru]

I've sussed the Benes plan B. He's become a potato farmer.

I thought he'd just become a potato.

[DiscoStu]

blx the material cost of growing the spuds is next to zero

you think tractors and related machinery is free and diesel too and transport too

sorry Tim, with the greatest of respect, have to disagree on this one.

My opinion, physical man hours is on of the smallest cost contributors to the price of the spuds

Milan.

I've sussed the Benes plan B. He's become a potato farmer.

[milanbenes]

blx the material cost of growing the spuds is next to zero

you think tractors and related machinery is free and diesel too and transport too

sorry Tim, with the greatest of respect, have to disagree on this one.

My opinion, physical man hours is on of the smallest cost contributors to the price of the spuds

Milan.

[tim123]

sorry DA,

the only thing that costs less over here is wages,

transport costs, on a Volvo 44ton artic with Fruehauf trailer and diesel will cost the same as in Germany for example

the farmers their John Deere tractors cost the same here as in the rest of europe

maybe stick to your hammering the phones eh

Milan.

Yep?

The raw material cost of growing potatoes is next to zero. Almost all of the added value is labour (the farmer's, the picker's and the retailer's) so as these people expect to earn less for doing this work, the final cost of the potato in the shop, is less.

Do you understand now?

tim

[tim123]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...5/nfood115.xml


'while Tesco has increased the price of 2.5kilos of Maris Piper potatoes from £1.78 to £2.18.',


potatoes over here (CZ), (not necessarily Maris Piper) are currently 9Czk a kilo, which means 2.5 kilos would be 60p.

How come 2.5 kilos of spuds in the UK costs 2pound18 ?

Because Tesco have washed them and put then into a plastic bag for you. If you go and buy lose unwashed spuds they will cost you half the price or less.

This '"paying for wasteful packaging" lark is really something that we should stop doing.

tim

[milanbenes]

as Wabbit says on my daughter's Winnie the Pooh dvd (when someone tries to give Pooh more hunny after he's been stuck in the doorway to Wabbits house),

No no no no no no no,

it's not what you earn which is important, it's your disposable after expenses, and if we are going to take this discussion down the comparison of wages route then to even the playing field we have to take in disposable income which in my opinion for CZ's Octavia man is higher than the UK's Mondeo man.


Milan.