Saturday, March 1, 2008

Veggie Prices

It's a lot of fun to write about all of the things that make life in Honduras difficult and challenging. For a change of pace today, I think I should mention one of the perks of living here, and that is the very low price of fruits and vegetables.

When we lived on Guanaja, produce was brought to our village once a week, and it was already kind of beat up when we bought it, because it had suffered a sea voyage to get to us. Because of the extra transportation cost, it was also quite expensive.

It was exciting for us to find, when we moved to Gracias, that produce was available fresh, in greater variety, all week long! It is also much less expensive than on the island.

Rachel bought these few items from the market yesterday:

This is two pounds of carrots, two green peppers, and a nice sized bunch of radishes. For this, Rachel paid 24 lempiras - about $1.25.

I thought this sounded remarkably inexpensive, so I asked some of the ladies from the homeschooling forum I frequent, to estimate how much these same vegetables would cost where they live. The results left me feeling like the bargain shopper of the week, and also make me realize that we should be eating a lot more vegetables!

J, in rural Pennsylvania, had the lowest US estimate: $3.50.

C, in rural northern New Mexico, estimated $5.

S, in Australia (where it is currently summer), gave an estimate of $7.

A, in Minnesota (where it is currently NOT summer), estimated $7-8.

K, in snowy New Hampshire, estimated that she would pay $8-9 for these same veggies.

Several people didn't know the price of radishes, or didn't have them available locally. Amongst those:

L in Washington state estimated that the carrots and peppers would cost $5

S, who lives on the island of Bermuda, estimated a whopping $14 for just the carrots and green peppers.

L in Vietnam thought her prices for carrots and peppers would be similar to mine.

S in Ethiopia said the carrots and peppers would cost less than $1

I had fun getting these estimates together from my friends from near and far. Feel free to chime in, on the comments section, with your local estimate. Just make sure to tell us your location, for reference.

I'll have to try this again in the future, with another consumer product. Maybe gasoline . . . ?

2 comments:

Trish said...

A few more estimates have come in:

H in Brazil says that $1.28 would purchase the carrots and peppers. She didn't find radishes there.

T, in rural northern Illinois, quoted $5.36 for all three items.

J in Arizona said she could purchase these for $4, but she thought that she could do even better if she watched for sale prices.

L in Italy was very pleased to be on the low end, with a quote of $3.96 for the entire collection. The dollar/euro exchange rate has been making life difficult for Americans in Europe, but at least she's getting good veggie prices.

Suzanne said...

We just got back from St. Croix, Virgin Islands where tomatoes are $6.00 a pound!!