The journey of an Indian onion

That was the subtitle of a recent article in The Economist.  The article tracks the path of an Indian onion from farm to consumer, and in the process reveals a badly antiquated food system in that country.  It also shows how much we consumers in the developing world take for granted.  

There are huge opportunities for efficiency gains associated with storage, transportation, and economies of scale but, as the article reveals, various Indian policies have, to the detriment of Indian consumers, kept out firms like Walmart, Carrefour, and Tesco who have the capacity and know-how.  

According to the article:

wholesale onion prices soared by 278% in the year to October and the retail price of all vegetables shot up by 46%. The food supply chain is decades out of date and cannot keep up with booming demand. India’s rulers are watching the cost of food closely, too, ahead of an election due by May. Electoral folklore says that pricey onions are deadly for incumbent governments.

A year ago it seemed that India had bitten the bullet by permitting foreign firms to own majority stakes in domestic supermarkets. The decision came after a fierce political battle. Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco have been waiting for years to invest in India. 

but

On the ground little has happened. Foreign firms complain of hellish fine print, including a stipulation to buy from tiny suppliers. Individual Indian states can opt out of the policy—which is unhelpful if you want to build a national supermarket chain. In October Walmart terminated its joint venture with Bharti, an Indian group. India has reduced the beast of Bentonville to a state of bewilderment. Tesco has cut expatriate staff

People in the developed world like to complain about Walmart, but I think it says something that any of us would be stunned if we walked into one of their stores and were asked to pay more than a buck or so for an onion.  And, we'd be completely perturbed if there were no onions for sale.  Rarely do we stop and think about the process (and the companies) that have led to such "unnaturally" high expectations.

Old fashioned winemaking meets new technology

The Economist has a fascinating article on the use of new farm and food technologies in the wine industry.  The developments are interesting for two reasons. First is that wine making and drinking is, for many people, the embodiment of artisinal and "natural".  Second, many of the technological developments are coming out of France, which might actually help adoption.  

Here are a few interesting segments:

Now, however, the stigma of automation is declining, and more prestigious producers have become open to the use of technology in winemaking. That has prompted inventors to devise new machines to meet their exacting needs. Because consumers remain seduced by the notion that wine should be made by humble farmers with as little intervention as possible, fine-wine labels still try to keep their experiments under wraps. But they are quietly deploying technology in a new way: not just to make bad wine decent, or to make good wine more cheaply, but to make already-great wines greater still.

and

France is the undisputed global leader in wine technology. As Mr Merritt notes, the country has a greater demand for mechanisation than America because its agricultural wages are higher. And France’s reputation means that its elite winemakers, unlike those in other countries, do not have to worry about criticism from elite French winemakers.

The whole thing is interesting: technologies discussed relate to automated picking (and selecting for grapes for optimal quality), new bottle closures (that work better than the old cork), reverse osmosis technologies (that improve flavor and control excess alcohol content), forgery-proof wines, precision irrigation technologies, flavor enhancing chemistry, and many others.   

It will be interesting to see if preferences for better taste and lower cost trump nostalgia.  Regarding one of the new technologies, the article conveyed:

WineSecrets, a firm in California, even lets clients try the same wine at a host of different alcohol levels to see which one tastes best. “Winemakers can’t be honest about what they do, because they’ll be accused of manipulation,” says Clark Smith, an American consultant credited with popularising RO. “When winemakers hear ‘manipulation’, they think, ‘What, you don’t want me to pick the fruit or crush the grapes?’ They’re forced to dissemble or they get demonised.”