Almost £2 for cauliflower!!!

maman

JackieO wrote: »

My brother who lives in a fairly rural area of France is paying around £4.60 for a cauli I would rather do without than pay that price

That's amazing!:eek: I hope your brother left it where it was!
Many of our cauliflowers actually come from Brittany. Britanny Ferries was established originally to bring the caulis over here and break into the British market.

Despite a few negative postings on here I still believe many suppliers are testing the market to see what people will pay (and what profit they can make). As I said in a previous post, we have to eat but we don't have to eat cauliflower!

Teahfc

maman wrote: »

Of course we understand that. !But does that explain why those caulis that are available are so expensive? It might be about 'supply and demand' but surely that's the same as saying that the shops will charge whatever they can get away with as people must eat cauliflower. The answer is we don't have to eat cauliflower so we'll vote with our feet and change the menu. !Admittedly we all have to eat but we do still have a little power over supermarkets.

And you are within your rights to vote with your feet, however some shoppers regardless of price insist on having cauliflower on their menu, and if there s high demand and little supply then prices go up.!
!

Edwardia wrote: »

What puzzles me is why Ocado can sell an organic cauliflower from Waitrose for less than the price of a non-organic cauli in Swansea market ??!

Secondly, surely supermarkets pay a deposit or percentage up front or even an agreed price for the crop when they order cauliflowers from a farmer ? If they've already paid in full then the price to the customer shouldn't go up because the farmer wasn't able to deliver or because he did but other farmers haven't.

Waitrose may have a seasonal price fixed with their supplier and the market!trader will have to pay from his supplier the going rate which in a supply and demand time will be high.

No supermarket pay any deposit or percentage up front, no agreed price for ALL the crop either.

How it works:!
Supplier is given a written programme by supermarket.
Supermarket demands a certain standard which may only make use of 50 % !of the suppliers crop.!
Payment is made 4-6 weeks after delivery to supermarket. Less a rebate of up to 5% depending on which supermarket.!

Supplier takes all the risk of growing it, if the weather fails it ....tough.
The supermarkets profit on fruit & vegetables is between 38-45% of the retail price.!

Edwardia wrote: »

Cauliflower has winter and summer varieties so it shouldn't ever be out of season.

You are correct normally we would be well into the best and cheapest time for cauliflower but sadly the weather has been unkind, coldest March on record etc etc.

tessie_bear wrote: »

i think i read somewhere that cauliflower was always in season in uk so must be down to rubbish growing conditions i suppose

see above.!

[Deleted User]

maman wrote: »

That's amazing!:eek: I hope your brother left it where it was!
Many of our cauliflowers actually come from Brittany.
QUOTE]

Indeed he did .Where he lives about 10 miles away in a very small town every Saturday they have a market where the local farmers bring stuff in for sale Nothing like our 'markets' though .There you know that the stuff was probably in the ground the day before.Depending whats in season you can buy brilliant alternatives if something is expensive and his partner Sandra does buy veg when plentiful and freeze it for when it goes up in price.I have eaten asparagus where I paid around 50p for a huge bunch complete with earth still clinging to the bottom and once when visiting we bought a huge box of apples for around a quid.Its odd whats expensive and whats cheap there.Davy said their tea bags are awful and he stocks up when he comes to England or I sent him lots packed into a big padded envelope .Usually Tesco's red label:D
They eat very few frozen stuff as the biggest supermarket is about 70 kilometers away and the local 7-11 store (9 miles from him) just doesn't have the room to stock much but he says he eats far better than he used to in England as very few take-aways where he is so everything is made from scratch.Because he lives in the back of beyond he has got to know the locals and often they will pop in for a glass of vino and a chat and nearly always bring a gift of something for the crazy englishman who rebuilt a derelict house by himself .It really was derelict as when he bought it in 1995 it hadn't been lived in since 1948 and a tree was growing through the roof:eek:The local get on with him very well and being very good with his hands he helps out with odd jobs and mending and carpentry etc.He is a trained mechanic and will help to fix their tractors and engines plus almost anything mechanical he can usually get going.He has been out there almost 10 years now and will never come back to England to live he is happy pottering around and in the summer looks after the holiday properties for the folk who only visit a couple of times a year.But its so strange when he rings and we are chatting about food prices as its not something I don't think he ever thought about before.

Lip_Stick

A few weeks ago, Asda was selling caulis for £1. Mam was doing her shopping for the Sunday dinner and there was only one left. It was a tiny thing hidden by a mass of leaves, and she still bought it! I'd have changed the menu rather than pay £1 for that.

fionajbanana

JackieO wrote: »

maman wrote: »

That's amazing!:eek: I hope your brother left it where it was!
Many of our cauliflowers actually come from Brittany.
QUOTE]

Indeed he did .Where he lives about 10 miles away in a very small town every Saturday they have a market where the local farmers bring stuff in for sale Nothing like our 'markets' though .There you know that the stuff was probably in the ground the day before.Depending whats in season you can buy brilliant alternatives if something is expensive and his partner Sandra does buy veg when plentiful and freeze it for when it goes up in price.I have eaten asparagus where I paid around 50p for a huge bunch complete with earth still clinging to the bottom and once when visiting we bought a huge box of apples for around a quid.Its odd whats expensive and whats cheap there.Davy said their tea bags are awful and he stocks up when he comes to England or I sent him lots packed into a big padded envelope .Usually Tesco's red label:D
e.

I have relatives that live in France and when they visit friends and family, they arrive with their estate car full of booze, ground coffee for peculators (as the stuff they buy is £1 a bag and tastes lovely), cheese, dried herbs (60p for a pot 6 times bigger than Schwartz's)

When they go home, their car is full of washing detergent, dishwasher tablets, toiletries as the French supermarkets don't do special offers like they do here and these are quite expensive and things like teabags as you stated, the teabags sold in Europe are mainly the disgusting Liptons and things which are not sold in France like Marmite.

fionajbanana

maman wrote: »

Despite a few negative postings on here I still believe many suppliers are testing the market to see what people will pay (and what profit they can make). As I said in a previous post, we have to eat but we don't have to eat cauliflower!

There are still people (mainly elderly) that eat the same things week in, week out. Monday could be pork chops, Tuesday - meat pie, Wednesday savoury mince and mash etc. So they are the sort of customers that does not look at the price and buy it because they have been eating it every Thursday for 45 years.

[Deleted User]

Well I'm getting on a bit, but I like to vary my menu and try to eat whatever is in season. I did ask in Sainsbobs if they had any spring greens, but the chap said that the weather being so bad for the farmers that often they were feeding it to the cattle as it wasn't worth trying to get in.So I ended up with a nice Savoy cabbage at 80p which will do me for the best part of next week as I only cook a bit as and when I need it and then wrap it in foil and store at the bottom of my fridge and it keeps fine.I chop and change my menu from week to week and never have stuck to the same dishes as I'd find it a bit boring.My neighbour gave me a bag of sweet potato's which I've never tried and I'm going to have a go with them over the weekend ,probably make a veggie curry and maybe some lentil and SP soup.Bless her she does need new glasses as she thought she had bought ordinary red rooster spuds so I gave her some maris piper in exchange.I'll give anything new a go if I can :)

cadasaj

Cauliflowers are on the super six for 69p from today in my local Aldi.

pelirocco

maman wrote: »

Of course we understand that. But does that explain why those caulis that are available are so expensive? It might be about 'supply and demand' but surely that's the same as saying that the shops will charge whatever they can get away with as people must eat cauliflower. The answer is we don't have to eat cauliflower so we'll vote with our feet and change the menu. Admittedly we all have to eat but we do still have a little power over supermarkets.

It costs X amount of £s to produce a field of cauliflowers , soin a good year lots caulis ( or any other veg etc ) then the price will be low .

If in a particular year the yield is less then obviously the product will have cost more per item to produce , hence the item for sale will be higher !

It really isnt rocket science

pink_princess

I was in Sainsburys this morning and they had a sign on the cauliflowers, it said that they can't keep stock levels high due to the bad weather affecting the crops.

We eat a lot of veg and we are finding quite a lot have had huge price increases.