How can a pineapple cost less than a turnip

Totally, Hebrideanlady. Last winter when my husband went to a local farm to get a big bag of tatties and some carrots, he asked the guy if he had any turnips. He directed him to a huge heap of turnips (for the beasts!) and told him to help himself. It is ridiculous that they can cost more than a pineapple.

Oh no, not the turnip/swede debate! To me the things with orange flesh are swedes. Turnips are mainly white with a tinge of purple near the top.

Agree about the price though!

Hebridean Wait till you hear this one,aparantley pineapples are picked in their thousands when they are unripe and packed up for shipping in the crates and by the time they arrive in port they are on the way to ripening the growers are paid pennies for each one and the supermarkets use them as a loss leader,all that information is from DS1 who is manager at Sainburys "the turnips are all home grown and cost more money to harvest mum" I should have known that shouldn't I ?

The same old story - exploitation of workers and farmers overseas.

I don't like pineapples bought here. The only time I've enjoyed them was when we were in Mauritius, where they are grown. They don't have those "woody", tough bits because they are picked when they are ripe, and they are soft and juicy.

I agree with phoenix. A turnip is not the same as a swede!

In the Green market in Newcastle pineapples are £1 and four boxes of figs for£1. I didn't buy "heavy"items like turnips.silly prices.

Can't stand turnips. Love mashed Sweden as the kids called it with lashings of butter, black pepper and haggis!

I had friends in Kenya who lived where pineapples were grown. 1/- each in the market, but he was the manager of the cannery, so got them for nothing and they were huge. The lpurple turnips can be a bit watery but I do like the flavour. Swedes are great in soup.

Baby turnips are delicious baked with onions in the oven.

I have been told that one brand of tinned pineapple is genetically modified. Not sure that sounds right, but hope you understand what I mean.

Googling finds several links to references to GM pineapple. It seems to be grown in Costa Rica. Del monte has been granted permission by the US FDa to import it, including a trial version with pink flesh called "Rose"

They say "representatives for Del Monte say the GMO fruit is still in a testing phase: "The USDA’s decision does not mean that Rosé is in commercial distribution; it is in a testing phase"

It's not necessarily exploitation. I taught in Thailand for a much lower wage than I would have got here. I wasn't being exploited, just being paid the going rate. Things didn't cost as much in Thailand so money went further. Pineapple exports are a very important part of the economies of countries where they grow easily.

glammananna said, based on good authority, that the growers earned "pennies for each pineapple". I accept that what seems like a paltry sum here may go a lot further somewhere else but in this particular instance "pennies" doesn't sound like much, particularly when they are sold at a much higher (subsidised/loss leader) price here.

I don't think teaching, although skilled and very necessary, can be compared with long gruelling hours of hard manual work in probably very difficult conditions.

People always use the argument that if we didn't import cheap goods from these countries their economies would suffer greatly but if we are really concerned about those countries, the people producing the goods should be paid properly.

Unfortunately greedy multi-nationals control our world economy and exploit when and where they can - whether it be minimum wage workers in the UK or poor farmers abroad.

I'm happy to buy fairtrade and do where there's the option.

Don't buy pineapples, fresh or tinned, so that particular case doesn't apply.