Imports/Exports

[barney]

As someone who has run a small business for years, but has never dealt with import/exports, can anyone enlighten me as to why we import and export so much?
To give this example, I was in Tesco earlier and bought some apples.
Like many, I was amazed at the array available.
Given that we are coming into peak apple season for UK growers, you'd expect the majority to be British.
There was 10 different varieties on the shelf.
3 from the UK, but others from Poland, Slovakia, Germany, France, Slovenia, South Africa and New Zealand.
The question is, simply, why does the UK export our apples and then import foreign apples when we have a glut of our own at this time of year?
Why do we export milk and dairy products to others countries and then import theirs?

I remember when I lived in Kent, there were huge packing sheds, full of migrant workers, where they imported fruit from Poland, bagged it up and exported it to Germany.
This is really not very green is it?

Does this just add to GDP without actually benefitting the people of the country?
I really don't get it.

I understand importing stuff that we don't produce or make. Things like citrus and wines.
I understand why we import cars and electrical goods, because people like the choice.
But why import something and export virtually the same product?

Beats me !

[Ranchi]

A minor factor may be to do with aid deals. eg pharmaceuticals made in U.K. are given to some countries that may not be able to pay for them. Instead fruit etc is taken in return. I know in the past this type of deal has taken place with some of the (at the time) poorer European countries.
I guess a major reason is that the big supermarkets want to maintain year round supplies of (as it’s a cruise site) green beans. They can get these from S America & Africa over a longer period than the short season in UK.
I actually think it’s a shame that we are losing the seasonal aspect of our diet.

[oldbluefox]

I never understand why some of the imported fruits in particular bear little resemblance to those being on the shelves in the exporting countries. As an example take a walk around the Merced in Barcelona and there you will see huge oranges, lemons, melons, peaches etc and then have a look at what we have in Tescos, Sainsbugs etc. Do you think they send us all their duff stuff or is there a reason for the small sizes?

[david63]

Perhaps we export at a higher rate than we import thus improving our balance of payments.

[Stephen]

Your right Foxy.

We were in Spain very recently and brought an Orange among other groceries. I say Orange, because the size of this thing was enough for four people let alone one.

[barney]

One would expect them to keep the best for themselves, as I would.

Things like oranges and lemons I have no issue with, because we cannot grow them yet in our climate, but apples ?????

The same with meat.
We import and export beef and lamb.
Why doesn't each country just eat their own and save on the diesel ?
Why do we send double arctic lorries through Dover full of live sheep, to be killed in France?
Makes no sense to me.

Another thing !

The apples in Tesco were labelled Redmere Farm and on close inspection, saw that they were a product of Slovenia.
What's that all about ?
Fake advertising ?

[david63]

"Redmere Farm" is a brand name deliberately designed to lure you into believing that the produce is local

[Mervyn and Trish]

I have a gripe about exporting rubbish, or to be more precise stuff for recycling.

We hear so many horror stories about it actually being dumped or buried after we hand it over instead of actually being recycled.

In my view we should take responsibility for our own waste and recycling. By all means put a tax on plastics etc but instead of it vanishing into government coffers invest it in developing truly green packaging materials and state of the art recycling plants in this country.

[CaroleF]

Following on from Mervyn's posting although not strictly to do with Imports/Exports (sorry Mods) why is it that different areas of the country deal so differently with refuse and recycling? At home, in Hampshire, we have two bins, a green one for normal waste and a blue one for recycling, paper, and certain types of containers, tins, milk containers etc. not bottles. We don't have a bottle collection but have to take them to a local recycling bin in our village. Other than that nothing is collected. Friends in Dorset have all sorts of containers, bags etc. that they have to put things in. Why can't each council do the same thing? Our relatives who live only 20 mins away from us but in a different council area have bottles collected - not that it's difficult for us to take them to the local bin but why isn't each area the same?

[Manoverboard]

Dorset has recently been re-organised and starting next year there will only be two ' Councils ' as opposed to the nine that they have at the moment. No idea if all nine have different coloured / types of bins but I do know that at least three of them do.