modicasa

1500 in small town in the south is the lap of luxury!
Here in Sicily at the moment I am paying 4 euros a cassetta for strawbs, (12 pun nets) , 3 euros a crate for cherry toms and 3.50 a kilo for cherries. But if I want a wooden front door itll cost be 2000 euros... On balance...

nicktonight

Have you tried Leroy Merlin at Etnapolis . Wooden (exotic) front doors from 400 Euros

clint

We live in Puglia but my parents are up north ( near the Swiss border), I have been up there recently cause both ofthem were in hospital, no way we could live with OH's pension up there went to the supermarket a couple of times and prices are much higher than down here.

primularossa

I think that you know that prices of vegetables and fruit are so low because they are paid so little to farmers....and that implies that farmers exploit workers paying them just a few euros per hour, employing seasonal immigrant workers who work and live in terrible conditions.

Are there ways to avoid this? We have found one through a "Gruppo di acquisto solidale" (Community Supported Agriculture Groups). We buy mainly local products here in Tuscany but we also buy oranges and other products from a cooperative in Sicily. A kg of oranges costs 2.3 Euros, same price of the supermarket, but we pay directly the farmer who, in change, pays regularly the workers and do not exploit workers "in nero" as others do.

modicasa

Primula - remember that we are at km0, so ahuge reduction in costs. Immigrant labour undoubtedly is involved, but Im talking prices of farmers markets. The problems in agriculture a huge, not least the big producers who grow in Tunisia and pay 1 euro a day for labour, bring it through Italy and it suddenly becomes Italian produce. The supermarkets are the villains, not the farmers who are paid so little for the produce it is impossible to pay normal wages to labourers. There was a farmer here yesterday who threw away his entire crop of melanzane because he was so disgusted with the supermarkets offering him a risible amount. Last year the big chains were paying between 6 cents and 13 cents a kilo for pomoderini. Thats slavery.

ladypenelope

supermarkets are cheaper further north though... from experience here in Rome and Province they are very expensive, in fact the same products (for example Alpro Soya) cost 1 euro more in Rome than they do in Tuscany. When I go to my friends in Florence I can't believe how much cheaper the Esselunga supermarkets are than the supermarkets in Rome it's a real rip off here! And if you take into account wages are higher and rents are lower in Tuscany compared to Rome, the only thing that is cheaper is eating at restaurant or going to the bar for a cappuccino, but then you can't do that anyway on Italian wages...

http://www.altroconsumo.it/vita-priv...er-risparmiare

sunnysider

Agree. That's shocking.

Not disputing your statement at all but where did you get the info from modicasa?

I could live on tomatoes* when I'm in Italy. No comparison between Italian ones (I'm pretty sure the ones I eat are Italian) and Brit ones.

* and can then claim that any facial redness is due to 15 a day and not wine.

modicasa

i have a lot of tomato growing clients. prices are reported in the local press, as are the reports of tomatoes being left to rot because its not financially viable to harvest them. and its the tescos of the world who ruin the market. two years ago i had clients who had soldthe entire bio melon crop to a well known uk chain and whien it was ready to harvest the supermarket said, well we'll only pay half now of what was contractually agreed. and there was nothing the farmer could do other then mulch the entire crop.