I've seen recentlyparts of threads from many folks discussing, among other things, the colombian-style roast coffees found in colombia, and statements about colombians selling their 'best' products to the US.
I think it is slightly disingenuous to state that all of the best products arrive in the US. Why? It's simple. the MAJORITY of the products arrive in the US. The majority of the coffee from Colombia is sold to US firms, the majority of emeralds are sold to US firms, the majority of bananas are sold to US firms, or at least to firms that have some major headquarters in the US.
HOWEVER. when exporting a perishable product such as bananas, and when one is sending that product to a highly propagandized-thru-advertising country, the 'best quality' suddenly becomes that which the market demands, not the best-tasting or the best-looking.
Let's use bananas for example: the smaller red bananas are have higher sugar contents (according to lab tests). In taste comparisons, even people in the US prefer the red banana flavor to the yello banana. The red bananas do not travel well, however. Shipping the red bananas to the US has failed almost entirely. Thus few people grow these bananas for export.
Sticking with bananas, for example, which is better, one that is tree-ripened or one that has been ripened on a shelf, or during transit in a ship? According to plant physiology, tree-ripened have more sugars, and are thought to be better tasting. Green-ripe fruits that are cured for ripening do not recieve the last fructose sugars that vine-ripened fruits recieve.
Thus, locally-grown fruits have more fructose. Many varieties that dont travel well have more flavor, according to objective tests. I don't need to make this up, there's plenty of science behind it.
Products that people percieve to be desireable are desireable. If we advertise or see all bananas as longish yellow-green or yellow fruits (even thought he banana isn't actually afruit, but that's more plant physiology), then bananas that appear different will not recieve the same value or have the same effect in the marketplace.
The US, a net importer of bananas, does not consume many plantains as compared to central and south america or as compared to europe. My wife says Colombians as a rule prefer plantains to bananas, not because bananas are an export crop, but because plantains are used in everyday cooking. Bananas don't cook well. In the stores, therprices are similar. In the coffe fields, plantains and bananas are used to shade the quality coffees. But US culture, in a large part influenced by United Fruit and Chiquita, eats bananas of a certain type and not plantains, not because 'everything good is exported from Colombia,' but because the definition of what's good has been created through marketing departments in large corporations in the US.
Coffee-- there's a lot of individual choice when it comes to coffee. I prefer the flavor of the roast I drink in Colombia or Brasil to the roast I can get in stores here. For people who think that there's a great difference between the colombian coffe sold in the US and the colombian coffee packaged for sale in Colombia, look into the grading systems and the export-grade coffees for sale in Colombia. It's the processing of the beans, the roasting and so forth, that gives coffee its flavor.
Emeralds-- a recent post said that all of the good emealds are exported to the USA. once again, let's look at how good is defined: in the US market, a living, 1/2 to 1 carat emerald is prized. If you try to buy one from a jeweller here, you'll pay about 1,000 per carat. If you buy in Colombia, you can pay as low as 100 per carat, sometimes much lower. Does ths mean that all of the good emeralds are exported? Not if you walk through jewelry stores in any part of Colombia... you'll see good emeralds and poor emeralds. You'll see emeralds mounted in 18 -carat gold, instead of the standard US 14-carat gold.
In the US also, you'll see good emeralds and poor emeralds. The difference? 10 times the price, and the emeralds are from Colombia.
So... we have marketing, and we have demand We have a large, rich country, and a small country that is in economic crisis. But we also have cultural attitudes and cultural tastes involved.
If gringos want to think that we get the 'best of emeralds and coffee and bananas and other imported goods, those thoughts are based on arbitrary measures of quality and price, on a standardized sizing and cultivation system, and on a marketing system that's very suave. In other words, there's some hoodwinking going on, whether you want to accept it or not.
I'll gladly discusss this more if anyone wants to start/continue a thread. hope it hasn't bored anyone to tears...
