Friday 5 December 2014

Why banana smuggling is profitable in Tunsia

Banana are the most popluar edible fruit and the cheapest type of fruit in the world. In fact, the banana is not tree but a high herb that grows up 15 metres. They hve various nutrients and are one of the healthiest foods which you can eat. this food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassiam, Manganese and so on. Banana could help ypu to feel happier and it can also prevent some disease such as blood-pressure. Banana are grown in more than 150 countries, they are huge economic and important-export for many countries who rely on the revenue. They are grown for local consumption and the price is very cheap but not in Tunisia. In Thailand, bananas are one kind of fruit eaten by poor people, why? because they are affordable and are available all year road. Thailand doesn't have the same tax issues as Tunisia because the banana are grown inside Thailand and selling, therefore operated within a free market.

According to "Why banana smuggling in profitable in Tunisia" The World Bank said that banana in Tunisia are more expensive than UK about 30% and they were in the top of 10 smuggled goods entering the country from either Algeria or Libya. Algeria, Libya and Tunisia are not grown banana so they are import from across the border and Tunisia has collected 36% the duty on imported banana. Otherwise, government gave a handful of imported-licence to businessmen. It made some businessmen circumvented the tax on banana and also government losing tax revenue and the market has been flooded by smuggled banana. Finally, it becime monopoly trade and expand to the black-marcket.

I think, Tunisians may be not buy bananas and noneed to eat it. Although, banana is the healthiest foods and various nutrition, I will buy other fruits are cheaper than banana and the same nutrition.

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Reference
Kottoor, N. (2014, December 3). Why banana smuggling is profitable in Tunisia. BBC News Business. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30277009
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4 comments:

  1. Peter.AUA5 December 2014 at 22:12

    Bananas are smuggled into other countries? That does seem a bit weird to me, but Tip's explanation makes it understandable - import taxes always encourage such corrupt behaviour.

    In fact, I think such laws are often made to deliberately allow the law makers to engage in corruption by breaking the laws that they have made.

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  2. Katie6 December 2014 at 09:08

    When I was a child, the banana price was very high in Korea. The price was too high that people couldn't buy it as a bunch. As the price made the prodcuts value, bananas were regarded as precious and expensive fruits. It was hard to believe there were other countires where people could eat banana like staple foods. What made me more supprised was banana chips. The banana chips were relatively cheaper than real bananas, so I suspected the ingredients. Mabybe all causes were in taxes.

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    Replies
    1. Peter.AUA7 December 2014 at 06:20

      Katie's comment reminds me or growing up in Australia. My father and his brother grew bananas as a business. And my mother liked to have a few plants around the house: bananas were available free for most of the year.

      My mother also kept other fruits in fresh supply: there mulberry trees to turn our feet and lips purple when they were in season, peach trees, macadamia nuts and others. There was also her garden, which usually had some juicy watermelon and other delights just waiting to be cut up and gobbled down on hot days.

      And of course grapes: there were a few vines that my family had brought with them from Italy a couple of generations earlier for the traditional wine making. These weren't so good eaten fresh from the vine, but there some newer varieties that were sweeter and more palatable.

      My thanks to Tip and Katie for prompting some happy memories of my childhood.

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  3. Peter.AUA7 December 2014 at 16:21

    With my afternoon coffee, I just read again Tips thoughtful post on bananas, her comment in paragraph 1. that when a business is "operated within a free market," the prices are lower, being set by market forces not distorted by government interference. As I did, it occurred to me that the same is true for drugs, both legal and illegal: official government policy in Thailand, for example, keeps the prices of popular drugs, from alcohol to marijuana to yaa baa unnaturally, with several harmful effects, and no obvious benefits: the higher prices lead to more crime to pay for drugs, the higher prices, especially for illegal drugs, support and encourage corruption, the attractively high profits encourage mafia activity, and of course the abnormally high prices hurt the families of drug users,whose income available for things like food is reduced.

    Why do Thai governments and many others so like to make drug problems worse to the greater harm of individuals and of society? Apart from the moral issues, this seems to me deeply irrational.

    Now back to my freshly brewed hit of coffee.

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