Alwyn Poole: Economics 101 on Importing and Exporting

Most countries focus on the economic benefits of exporting. They accrue primarily to the producers but they flow on it to employees and relevant towns. Consumers lose as they end up either paying the world price for the product (e.g. our fruit, fish, meat, etc) or accepting a much lower quality. Anyone who has been to a country like Japan and seen NZ quality kiwifruit or apples is unlikely to forget how amazed they were. In my life – in NZ – I have only once eating export quality steak and any export quality fish I have caught myself.

We focus a great deal less on the benefits of importing – which are equal but accrue to the less powerful consumer block that has limited means of influencing government.

I am currently in Brazil. Below are watermelons and avocados that are not only much bigger and of incredible quality – but a fraction of our prices. The watermelon comes in at $1.90 per kg.

At present European farmers are protesting NZ products and NZ producers are offended. NZ consumers need to work out what they would like to come in at world quality and world prices and push for those products. It would improve our “cost of living crises”.

Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. This article was sourced HERE

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