Economy → Banana Republic
Language:
Some Chinese farmers are learning the hard way the law of supply and demand.
Last year, the price of bananas was so high that it became subject to speculation. A number of peasants started to produce bananas, hoping they would rake in enormous profits…
But too many peasants decided to become banana growers, which caused the price of bananas to collapse. Today, the price of one 斤 [jin] (500g) of bananas is 1 yuan ($0.17), but it can probably be haggled down to half the price, if you try.
The same phenomenon occurred a couple of years ago with bricks of compacted Pu’er tea (普洱茶). The price of Pu’er tea had soared to a point where people judged it economically more favorable to “store” their money into some bricks of tea instead of at the bank. At the time, this market would offer a much better return on investment than banks’ low interest rates. But that was until the market collapsed and hundreds of thousands of peasants lost all their savings. It might seem laughable today, but lives were shattered as a result of that bubble, and suicides were committed.
The big thing this year, in addition to bananas, is garlic. We’ll see what is going to happen, but there are already a lot of farmers starting to grow garlic…
January 24th, 2010 at 6:20
ok ! but the price getting back some how ? or it’s rest low forever ??
January 24th, 2010 at 16:11
这名字起得好！
January 24th, 2010 at 17:25
Sleeplow: The price will rise again when enough banana growers decide to quit the business and start growing something else. That’s supply and demand… too many bananas on the market = the price is kept high.
吴志文: “Banana Republic” 是个俗语用来形容只有一个出口物的国家，比如：中美洲的一些国家只有香蕉可以出口。
January 24th, 2010 at 23:39
好像一个衣服的牌子
January 25th, 2010 at 1:02
也是……：P
这个衣服的牌子是从俗语来的
January 25th, 2010 at 16:11
这样啊：）
January 27th, 2010 at 23:37
Le côté sombre du capitalisme…
January 31st, 2010 at 20:36
Il y a deux choses qui m’etonnent: 1) est-ce si facile de COMMENCER a cultiver les bananas? et 2) est-ce que le climat de Xi’an est assez chaud pour ce fruit?
January 31st, 2010 at 22:00
Hum… tu m’as bien piégé avec la première question! hehe, je ne sais pas si c’est vraiment facile de commencer à zéro à cultiver des bananes… par contre, ceux qui les cultivent ne le font probablement pas dans la région de Xi’an, mais un peu plus au sud, là où il n’y a pas d’hiver.
Je dois avouer que je n’ai pas de sources fiables pour cette histoire de bananes… c’est ce qu’on m’a raconté. Mais l’histoire des briques de thé Pu’er et celle de l’aïl sont très bien documentées.
February 1st, 2010 at 17:13
… et en 19e siecle des Europeens ont investi leur argent dans aluminium qui etait tres cher a cette epoque …
February 3rd, 2010 at 14:13
Interessant ce que tu dis.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:30
Et as tu des news de l’oignon ? celui qui est censé protégé de la grippe H1N1 ?
Ses cours avaient terriblement augmenté l’automne dernier
February 7th, 2010 at 2:47
C’était de l’oignon ou de l’aïl? L’article que je cite parle bien d’aïl.