How Do They Manage It?
I’m very fond of sardines and the other day I bough a few cans of very cheap sardines for R7.00 (about US$ 0.47) per can.
Back home I noticed that it was imported from Canada. I normally buy the Norwegian sardines at double the price. Granted, it is not as good as the Norwegian sardines, but certainly no worse that our locally produced sardines that also sell at double the price. I wonder how much it retails for in Canada. How on earth can Canada produce a product that is not inferior to our own, transport it… what… probably 15,000 miles to South Africa and still sell it at half the price?
But this is not the only fish that is imported. Baracouta (we know it as snoek), imported from New Zealand, is readily available at most our supermarkets at R30.00 (about US$ 2.00) each. Okay, they are rather small but a fresh locally caught snoek of that size will easily set you back R40.00 to R50.00 each. Once again produced at the other side of the world and transported all the way here, to be sold cheaper than our local product. How’s that?
Is our labor too expensive or our taxes too high?
And then there still is the ethic side of the matter. We have a large fishing industry but most our fishermen live under the breadline. What has happened to protecting your local industries against cheap imports?
No, I’m not pointing finger at anybody. I’m guilty too, but should government not block imports like this. We can produce enough fish for the nation without importing it.
Have a great day, and eat some fish. It is good for you.
Comments (91)
I like sardines on toast. I go through quite a few cans per month.
I find that very hard to chew on. It is probably the most sought after fish in the country. I think we could easily consume more snoek that any other fish. It is cooked in water or fried in oil. It is the best fish to grill on a bed of charcoal. It is also very popular when pickled, smoked or dried.
If there are open markets, this is the price that is paid.
Everyone can make a choice as what to buy - I try to buy local, produce from Ireland, the EU and only then produce that is fresh from somewhere else. I'm not gone on beans from a starving 3rd world country, but there are sometimes no alternatives. There are also products I don't buy because of the lack of regulations and quality control in another parts of the world.
It's your money and you decide how to spend it.
True, but I cannot understand how they can get it here for so cheap. We must be doing something something wrong here.
Did you get my last response on my previous blog. I can help you but I need more info. And we'll have to do it before5pm, my time. I don't know what is going on with my ISP. I had a helluva fight with them yesterday morning but nothing changed. I have no connectivity between about 5 pm and 10:30pm.
Yes, we are going tht way here too. And our markets are flooded with cheap imports.
Will that mean that some foods get a little more expensive? Probably.
But I would be happy to pay an extra few pence if it meant that the food was more ethically produced.
Yes, I have only 2 problems with the baracouta coming from out your way. Occasionally the meat go powdery. That is, as you said, due to bad handling.
The other problem is that they are very small and lean. This fish is best when fully grown and fat. A good one should be more than a meter long. I don't eat it in winter for then it is prone to have 'worms', though it is not really worms, it is the veins inside that that goes stringy.
This is a vicious fish to catch by hand. You must use a steel tracer on the line. I'm a keen fisherman but when they start biting, I pull anchors and go home. They ruin your hands.
Yummy!!
Understandably but yet it is cheaper than our local stuff.
Canned foods are generally expensive in South Africa.
this is what the tell us is happening here but we don't see it happening.
I just feel better buying it, knowing that child-labour and exploitation isn't being used.
And that is exactly what is happening here. Our cabinet ministers favor those who give the best kickbacks under the counter.
See ya around.
Somehow, I think, people are exploited to some extend in the production of everything. You need labor to produce and labor is always vulnerable.
I recently went to see a docu-film, called Dukale's Dream, which shows what a difference it can make.
....
I'd like to look at that. I'll look at youtube to see if I can find it.
That is not just the Western countries. The east, notably China, is doing the same thing.
Hmm, Portuguese sardines are not bad though still not as good as the Norwegian sardines. They also used to be cheaper but now they are about the same price as our local sardines.
Look, fish is fish. I read somewhere that the oil is more expensive than the fish, that is why they cram the can with as much fish as possible; to use less oil. And I think that is the main difference. The oil that is used.
Baracuda is a shark if I'm not mistaken. We're taking about baracouta. I posted a pic for oldblue. That is the size we are used to.
I for myself like the sardines with the fishbones in..
The stuff here - and the Canadian variety - is in soy. I have not checked the Norwegian sardines.
you are quite correct. I just googled it. It is a fish, not part of the shark family.
They are good. And it is a smaller (or should I say slimmer) sardine than the Portuguese, South African and Canadian products.
you will have to admit that it made you aware of what you're eating.