Weather undermines supermarket supplies
Bad weather ruins crops in Florida
(CNS): The high price of fruit and vegetables locally and a serious shortage of supplies is being blamed on weather conditions in the US. Foster’s Food Fair said Monday that ‘El Nino’ is impacting the growing season in the United States and Mexico and some fresh produce is in short supply. Warning customers of a severe lack of strawberries, green peppers, tomatoes, green onions and watermelon due to a falling temperatures and rain in Florida and freezing weather in Mexico, the supermarket chain said very hot temperatures in Peru were playing havoc with asparagus crops.
Preparing customers for the empty shelves or significant price hikes, Foster’s said it could be some weeks before the supplies would be back on track.
Over the last week frosts in parts of Mexico have damaged more than 18,000 hectares of agricultural land in the states of Sinaloa and Sonora. While in Florida both too much and too little rain as well as chilly and hot weather over the last month or so have also disrupted their growing seasons for a whole range of crops.
Category: Local News, Science & Nature, Weather
In the states right now they are dumping melons onions oranges apples squash and a bunch of other veggies I don’t eat. But the point is their is an over supply and people are just talking shit to you people To Make matters worse for you people I see tons of chips canned foods pharmacy supplies and sodas and flavored waters going into the dump everyday because their is so much demand compared to what is being produced.
typical cayman…5 star price for a 3 star product….
One solution is look at the Jamaican market. We are so near to Jamaica which has an abundant of vegetables and fruits worth exploring. Also, there is the added advantage of the exchange rate (CI$1 = JD$141.00). The quality of the fruits and vegetables can easily be measured and approved. It doesn’t take a damn Genius to look into this.
Bring dat ganja by the boatload mon!
The two main local distributors of all imported grocery items do not need any external excuse or reason to raise their prices – their greed is enough!
The Cayman way. Have two options who have no reason to compete and rather can both extract oligopolistic profits from the consumers. But the only way to address is to free up restrictions on foreign inward capital investment. However Cayman’s elite will never let that happen.
Perhaps it’s time for people to band together, shop for non-perishable items in the USA, ship them down, split the cost and split the goods.
Let’s go independent
Buy locally grown vegetables , catch local fish – Problem solved….
Except there are few fish left, and in any event our population density is much too big.
Why have freight prices remained so high, while cost of fuel has plummeted? Collusion and unchecked greed. Classic piracy.
Freight is a fairly elastic market, so one would expect fuel price changes to be embedded in there.
@8:05am….but you are forgetting price gouging!….no one seems to bother anymore it seems…just accept it.
Well its wrong!
Cayman Air ticket prices….. not reflective of low fuel prices….
Ocean freight costs….needs to reflect current fuel prices…
Local gasoline fuel (gas / diesel) prices….a rip off…
Health Insurance rates….premiums far too high…
Government fees/ taxes….many are too high…
All adds to our high cost of living…needs urgent review.
On the other hand….real wages have been stagnant since 2008…people working harder for less..
A recipe for stress!
I love paying high prices for substandard “fresh fruit and veg”.
We might be in for a rough year. El Nino causing natural upheavals on one half and local high Government duties and fees being blaimed for the other half.
Too high cost of ocean freight is impacting our high cost of living as is the cost of gasoline fuel prices; the latter being at totally ridiculous prices vs oil prices globally.
An urgent across the board review of our total cost of living structure needs national review.
Dear George, we have the more confused the Govern,met gets and the required relief to the people becomes a far away dream. We need solutions Sir, not more sound bites.not saying that that is what you are all about sir.
We all know that the cost of living in part is driven by fuel costs,but, there are other key ingredients, you mention one cost of transportation. There are other key and most relevant factors. The statement of weather in the US creates food shortages is the key to our solution in driving down prices and perhaps even the cost of transport and yes open our eyes to possible alternatives. Consider this, the food products in the main that we consume are not necessarily American produced goods, but rather, from places south of us. The products/produce from these areas which makes up a large quantity of what we consume is transported from south to north and then back down to us. certainly it must be cheaper to ship goods directly to us with a regular service provided to this end. Perhaps our sweet spot government could provide financing for such a venture through the Development Bank and help coordinate this effort with the suppliers and importers all for the benefit of “the people”. Hey I may not have it all right or perhaps I’m totally off base, but at least it’s an idea that could start some alternative thinking and does not need some 40 man Commitee to research and/or implement if found feasible.
That’s my six pence worth for the day. Hail de Man.
On every trip to the supermarket I say this to my wife at least six times: ‘Look at these prices – the damn stealing (insert family name of store owner here)’…
You actually damn them??
Finally something ex pats and Caymanians could unite to protest about. 50,000 people in front of CIG should focus their attention
WTF? You are going to protest against cold weather in Mexico?
5.23 drink more coffee before writing, or don’t smoke ganja before writing. If you cant work out what the issue is, you deserve the high prices
We know all about the supply and demand economics but given the many, many years of healthy profits that the supermarkets have earned, and in view of the very hard times that many in our Islands are now facing to barely survive, do they HAVE TO raise prices even higher than they already are? Can we call on our supermarket owners to demonstrate some compassion and community care for those who are many times less fortunate than they are?
How do you know that the supermarkets have earned healthy profits for many many years? Ever since Hurricane Ivan, the cost of doing business in cayman has continued to increase on annual basis. The price that the public pays for goods and services is tied to the cost of living. Let me know when you think that number starts going down…
Yawn…you can just here the higher prices coming…and will they reduce when stocks are bountiful…you guessed it…not a hope in hell…