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Tue Sep 30, 2008 at 12:00:00 PM PDT
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| File this one under the category of "Duh." Companies that seek cheaper ingredients often land in China. Ya think? The article says that China is Canada's 3rd largest food supplier. No doubt they are a large supplier to the U.S. too.
I can't speak to the prices in China today, but I would find it hard to believe that things have changed too drastically from when I lived there in 2000. I lived in Beijing, a city that is seen as expensive within China. It's their Washington, D.C. Yet for me it was cheap beyond belief. Usually prices were 1/8 the cost of a similar item in the U.S. |
| Jill Richardson :: From Canada: China is Nation's 3rd Largest Food Supplier |
| Just so you have an idea of what it's like over there, here are the prices as I remember them:
A good meal: $1
A great meal: $2
Buffet at a restaurant: $5
Buffet at a fancy restaurant: $12.50
Bottle of Coke: $.31 (with a $.13 refund for returning the bottle)
My favorite breakfast (similar to English muffin egg sandwich): $.13
Enormous bottle of beer: $.25
CD: $1
Bicycle: $15
Bus ride: $.13 (no A/C) $.25-$.38 (with A/C)
Having clothing tailored: $1 or less
Having a dress custom made + fabric: $9
Eyeglass frames and lenses with eye exam: $60
Life in China is cheap if you are used to spending dollars. I think I remember one of my teachers telling me she made 2000 RMB/mo ($3000 US per year) and she lived in a nice area ("nice enough for Westerners to live in"). And that was in Beijing, an expensive city.
The money quote from the article is:
"If it doesn't say Made in China, you have no idea what Chinese ingredients are in there. You'll never know," said James Morehouse, senior partner at Chicago-based A.T. Kearney and specialist in the Chinese food industry. "If you go through a supermarket, there's probably China-sourced or India-sourced ingredients in the vast majority of the products." |
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