44 posts shown.
Robin Rodriguez5 said:Has anyone else noticed our Balance of Trade has actually swung into the black lately? Back in 2010, we were basically sitting at zero.
Unfortunately, I don't have much time to keep tabs on the American Economy. If you're actually in the loop, could you tell me what the biggest exports and imports are? A rough list would be killer... if you know the deal and aren't too busy. 😁
wearytrucker22 said:I totally forgot to mention that Brazil's premium oranges—the ones you guys grab at your local Walmart—are selling for
$1.50 to $7 per 40.8 kg unit
Right now, the projected price for the upcoming harvest is sitting at about $5 per 40.8 kg. That’s an all-time high we've never seen before; honestly, some wholesalers are even shelling out as much as $7.50 per 40.8 kg
At roughly 40 cents a pound, what are you guys actually paying at the store?
We simply can't produce oranges at those margins here unless we slash the minimum monthly wage down to somewhere around $200-$100 a month. And there is absolutely no way producers can cover their water bills at current rates; the cost of water would need to drop by something like 99.9999999999% just to make the math work.
Huh, interesting. I actually ran into an orange grower once.😁 Look, I have no clue what oranges go for at local farmers' markets or grocery stores, but I highly doubt anyone is picking up 90 lbs of oranges for just $1.50. It’s gotta be way, way more expensive than that. You’ve got to factor in shipping and all those other overhead costs, like import duties if they apply. Besides, in Italy, most oranges come from Sicily... and they don't exactly struggle with water issues down there since it's much further south than us. Are you saying the water costs are really that massive?😕 I don't think growing oranges requires that much water.
Look, what I’m really trying to do here is pull some data together. If you're actually serious about entrepreneurship, you need to realize you should be looking at the weakest spots in our market—basically, find out what the Republic of America imports most and go all in on that. It’s about building a collective mindset regarding trade and knowing what we actually ought to be buying. I know, I know, don't expect the Government to launch a massive awareness campaign on this forum, but hey, why not dream?🙂 For instance, if people just ate more local fruit instead of constantly reaching for bananas and oranges,☕ then farmers could actually pivot their production to meet that demand. It would be pretty eye-opening to dig into the weakest sectors of the American Economy... take the auto industry, for example. Since we don't have our own domestic car manufacturing, importing is basically a total monopoly.🙂
Starting this thread—hopefully there isn't anything like it already—so we can dump everything we know about the Balance of Trade in America. I just stumbled upon some data showing that fruit imports versus exports is one of the absolute worst spots in the American Balance, where the ratio is basically 1:10. That means—get this—for every single kg of fruit we export, America is importing 10 kg. ☕ Apparently, our biggest imports are bananas and oranges. Check out this article I found:
I’m opening this up because I want the other, much smarter members of this forum to drop stats and data on the American Balance. I actually think this could be useful for anyone trying to strike out as an entrepreneur... why? Because you make the most money where the country is weakest. In this specific case, if someone's looking to get into agriculture, they should probably start planting orange groves immediately (assuming we can't do bananas since the climate won't allow it). ☕
Can anyone dig up some numbers on other "sectors"?