Cheap tomatoes: gallons of gazpacho
My beloved tomatoes. I remember that at school, at the early age of 7, I once drew a bowl full of red bright tomatoes which was marked with the highest distiction by the design teacher. Maybe then my passion with this fruit started.
But, do not worry, this posting is not going to be an "Ode to the Tomato"...this all came to my mind while reading some export/import statistics from Albania. This is a country with a wide trade balance deficit (a negative balance of trade, i.e. more imports than national exports). Many/Most other countries suffer from large trade deficits (the U.S. to start with). In tiny Albania this is a sign of worrying economic and structural problems.
Imagine that you are a tomato farmer in Albania. Do you own your farm? From my EU mind, it was sort of surprising to question whether a farmer owns the little or gigantic piece of land he/she works in. Albania is still going through the process of land restitution and compensation: an extremely complicated area...just think about property rights, lack of cadastre, how to justify property when there are no written documents and other thousand problems associated to the issue of land...rural/coastal land, arable land, urban...different prices, different political interests...
But, back to the tomato farmer, he is lucky enough to own his/her land. The guy starts producing tomatoes. He does not use fertilizers because here in Albania are not widely used and farming is still very 'organic'. The harvest is wonderful tasty tomatoes that he/she wants to sell in Tirana, maybe even to export them to Italy, to prepare "Passata di Pomodoro Mamma Mia". Problem number 1: distribution and packaging. Problem number 2: certification. Problem number 3: marketing. Problem number 4: Register his/her professional activity and pay taxes...
Conclusion: the tomato farmer, desperate, decides to stop growing tomatoes and migrates to Greece to collect watermelon as a temporary worker. Imagine that this is a vicious cycle and most of the farmers, aware of the barriers to make a business of growing tomatoes, decide to find other 'biznesi'. Result: Markets full of processed foreign food.
With this example I do not want to imply that there is a shortage of tomatoes or other agricultural goodies in Albania...on the contrary, in fact tomatoes are delicious, funnily-shaped, bio, cheap ones. But it is a pity that the lack of clear agriculture and trade policy is cutting the wings of local entrepreneurial hopes.
All in all, the red bright tomatoes that I buy at the groceries produce loads of gazpacho. The greatest remedy to combat these days high temperatures.
I am melting.
And Spain is burning...which makes me sad..but this is already another little story.
But, do not worry, this posting is not going to be an "Ode to the Tomato"...this all came to my mind while reading some export/import statistics from Albania. This is a country with a wide trade balance deficit (a negative balance of trade, i.e. more imports than national exports). Many/Most other countries suffer from large trade deficits (the U.S. to start with). In tiny Albania this is a sign of worrying economic and structural problems.
Imagine that you are a tomato farmer in Albania. Do you own your farm? From my EU mind, it was sort of surprising to question whether a farmer owns the little or gigantic piece of land he/she works in. Albania is still going through the process of land restitution and compensation: an extremely complicated area...just think about property rights, lack of cadastre, how to justify property when there are no written documents and other thousand problems associated to the issue of land...rural/coastal land, arable land, urban...different prices, different political interests...
But, back to the tomato farmer, he is lucky enough to own his/her land. The guy starts producing tomatoes. He does not use fertilizers because here in Albania are not widely used and farming is still very 'organic'. The harvest is wonderful tasty tomatoes that he/she wants to sell in Tirana, maybe even to export them to Italy, to prepare "Passata di Pomodoro Mamma Mia". Problem number 1: distribution and packaging. Problem number 2: certification. Problem number 3: marketing. Problem number 4: Register his/her professional activity and pay taxes...
Conclusion: the tomato farmer, desperate, decides to stop growing tomatoes and migrates to Greece to collect watermelon as a temporary worker. Imagine that this is a vicious cycle and most of the farmers, aware of the barriers to make a business of growing tomatoes, decide to find other 'biznesi'. Result: Markets full of processed foreign food.
With this example I do not want to imply that there is a shortage of tomatoes or other agricultural goodies in Albania...on the contrary, in fact tomatoes are delicious, funnily-shaped, bio, cheap ones. But it is a pity that the lack of clear agriculture and trade policy is cutting the wings of local entrepreneurial hopes.
All in all, the red bright tomatoes that I buy at the groceries produce loads of gazpacho. The greatest remedy to combat these days high temperatures.
I am melting.
And Spain is burning...which makes me sad..but this is already another little story.
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