My storeman, Freddie (from Ghana), goes to town weekly (in Monrovia, Liberia) and also arranges food purchases from the Chandler (its like a 'buy everything you want' contact man for ships in port). And Freddie has turned up some interesting things about the 'fresh' produce and eggs we get and I thought you might be interested in them:
1. Eggs are from India
2. What looks like Roma Tomatoes are reported to be from the Ivory Coast
3. Potatoes are from Holland (and are supposedly the ones Holland won't keep)
4. Still trying to figure out where my carrots come from but I don't get enough of them at one time, and when I do its a month apart. The ones we get locally are almost black on the outside (so theres no question as to whether you are going to peel them). And when we get the 'once a month' carrots they come in plastic looking real nice like they were hijacked on the way to someones grocery store where they pay a lot of money for them.
5. Occasionally we can 'acquire' some sweet or bell peppers (like once since January) at a very expensive rate even compared to U.S. or European standards. But we buy them when available, the crew (our people) are worth it.
SO, how fresh do you think my 'fresh' produce really is? Hmmm, and the potatoes are old (believe me, I think I can tell by now) and you loose about a third or more of the content after peeling and cutting out green, black, and/or rotten spots. And that takes A LOT OF TIME FOR 400+ people, but we can save that for another post that way I can introduce you to my industrial strength potato peeler!
Where I get my fresh produce, and where we are...are sometimes worlds apart.
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