I live in Greece. While a lot of what the article says resonates with me, there’s a small detail that changes everything. Climate change. The last two years I haven’t eaten a decent tomato during summer. We had excessive heat waves the last two years, especially this year the whole summer is with temperatures above 35 which is unprecedented. This wrecks havoc in crops. It doesn’t affect tomatoes only, fruits also aren’t as delicious as they used to be, cucumbers seem tasteless and the list goes on.
Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
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Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#42Croatia has horrible food, locals can not afford quality food. This country was overrun by tourists, and is now more expensive than Italy. Recent adoption of Euro was the last nail in a coffin. Go to Greece, if you want "authentic local tomato from street-market".
Just had a week on various Croatian islands. It’s true that we were shocked by the cost of the food (€18 for a pizza in a restaurant) although put it down to the cost of importing the various ingredients. I wouldn’t say any of the food was “horrible” though. We had a tremendous “meat plate” of grilled marinated chicken, pork and steak with potatoes.
(Croat lounging on the Croatian coast right now)
No, prices are high because they've been jacked up as high as the market will bear. As an example, an cup of coffee at a beach bar in a random coastal village (€2.5) is about the same as in the (touristy) center of London (£2).
The effects will probably be seen the next year.
As other commenters noted, Croatia has historically been mass budget tourism location, largely undiscovered by comparatively wealthier western tourists (aside from Germans). Ultra-low taxes for "mom and pop" short-term rentals exacerbated the mass low-quality buildout.
Now it's at a point where prices went up fast (due to euro, overall inflation and the tourist demographics changes), but the quality didn't catch up yet (generalizing a lot here).
There's also been more vocal "anti tourist" sentiment (echoing protests in Barcelona, but just people complaining on blogs and in news) that will for sure get more momentum in the next few years.
Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is capitalism failing us here? Why do we need to grow our own?
Like all free market failures, the culprit is regulation. Regulated food, local and weekend markets reduced competition by discouraging and removing small retailers until large supermarket chains remained de facto monopolies. Those chains must serve very large number of customers so they must focus on produce that is easy to pick, store and sell. Looks good and survives (even gets ripe during) transit. Taste is often…
While I think there may be something to that, I think there's a simpler, more "it's just normal capitalism" explanation:
Making deals with every local small-time producer would be a big pain. Why do that when you can make a single deal with a giant monster of a tomato producer, and sell their tomatoes (especially since as the sibling comment points out, local tomatoes won't be as pretty and as uniform in quality)? There's economies of scale, prices are lower, the supply chain will be simpler, it's all better for the supermarket chain.
Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is capitalism failing us here? Why do we need to grow our own?
Like all free market failures, the culprit is regulation. Regulated food, local and weekend markets reduced competition by discouraging and removing small retailers until large supermarket chains remained de facto monopolies. Those chains must serve very large number of customers so they must focus on produce that is easy to pick, store and sell. Looks good and survives (even gets ripe during) transit. Taste is often…
I don't understand what is regulated here, so that it prevents small sellers from being competitive. Is it packaging?
Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#45ah, the tomato supremacy chauvinism prevalent in Europe. Deeply rooted in all countries south the Alps. It is one of the last bastions standing hindering true unification.
I have faced it so many times. It goes like this:
- be from north of Alps, e.g. Germany
- be on visit in south of Alps, e.g. country bordering Mediterranean Sea such as Spain
- order dish containing tomato
- unasked, get lectured by local acquaintance how "your" country's produce tastes trash and that you don't know how heavenly "their's" is.
Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#46ah, the tomato supremacy chauvinism prevalent in Europe. Deeply rooted in all countries south the Alps. It is one of the last bastions standing hindering true unification. I have faced it so many times. It goes like this: - be from north of Alps, e.g. Germany - be on visit in south of Alps, e.g. country bordering Mediterranean Sea such as Spain - order dish containing tomato - unasked, get lectured by local acquainta…
Since the tomato (though not our modern varieties) first evolved in Mexico, isn't there some sense in the idea that it would grow better in hotter countries?
(I'm sure that's not the only factor to which the "our tomatoes are best" advocates would attribute their tomatoes' quality.)
Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#47It's been a long lasting peeve of mine. I Live in London, where you can easily satisfy every kink, even the most exotic fruits and spices are found in every corner of the city. Yet, for the love of me, I cannot find any tasty tomato. Even if money is no issue, it just doesn't seem to exist? A giant void in a huge market? At this point, I'd pay 10x prices without blinking. It's fair that I cannot find them in winter,…
Most Polish and Romanian shops sell tomatoes, but their prices are not capped at £2/kg like Sainsbury's do.
Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#48Croatia has horrible food, locals can not afford quality food. This country was overrun by tourists, and is now more expensive than Italy. Recent adoption of Euro was the last nail in a coffin. Go to Greece, if you want "authentic local tomato from street-market".
Croatia is having its "bully" tourism phase. They have been historically super cheap and undiscovered location up until 5-10 years ago and now that they are in EU and Schengen and it's actually nicer than some bigger mediterranean countries everyone started piling in. The locals which aren't really business savvy started doubling/tripling prices to see how far it can go without providing additional services or raisin…
Last time I visited Croatia the summer two years before adopting EUR and all hospitality services wanted EUR. When I requested prices in kuna they were dismissive with "just convert from EUR to kuna in Google". I could easily spend less money while in Italy, Spain, or Greece. They aspire to place themselves as Switzerland of Adriatic, mostly for Germanic speaking tourists. Who wouldn't want to charge Swiss prices, duh. I say good luck Croats!
Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#49Romanian giant tomato. Buy seeds for US$3.99.[1] This would be a good project for the Open Source Farming Robot. Assuming you actually want a kilogram sized tomato. [1] https://www.davesseed.com/product/romanian-giant-tomato/
Looks like that particular supplier is in Tasmania and only ships to Australia!
Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is capitalism failing us here? Why do we need to grow our own?
Like all free market failures, the culprit is regulation. Regulated food, local and weekend markets reduced competition by discouraging and removing small retailers until large supermarket chains remained de facto monopolies. Those chains must serve very large number of customers so they must focus on produce that is easy to pick, store and sell. Looks good and survives (even gets ripe during) transit. Taste is often…
Nonsense. Like many market failures it is about consumers facing decisions but lack good information to make their purchase decision or need to optimize over too many competing product parameters.
For supermarket produce there isn't a good way to judge product quality before buying. There is some quality improvement with paying more but usually the improvement is very little compared to the price increment. For instance, a supermarket might sell tomatos at 2.99 for regular tomatos and 4.99 for a premium/organic variety. The taste will only marginally differ so that only few people buy premium. This prevents economies of scale for the better product to drive down the price.
Very little about this is about regulation.