Uzbek apricots cost a fortune from my local supermarket. They are the only Uzbek apricots I’ve ever eaten.

Almost every apricot you ever bite into will be from Turkey. Why? Because Turkey has, by and large, monopolised the global export of apricots.

And because it has, an Uzbek apricot will cost ya. Not because an Uzbek apricot is intrinsically better than a Turkish apricot. Simple because it is not Turkish, and therefore your purchase of it flies in the face of economies of scale, thereby upping the price.

My global yet structured diet

This led me to thinking about all the foods I eat that are not local, and how they are global, yet each product is usually specific to one place in the world. Not because that’s the only place it grows, but because that’s the only place that exports at scale.

Every raisin I eat grew in the California sun. Every avocado I eat is from Israel. Every orange, from Spain.

This isn’t a blog about the merits or otherwise of global food supply chains, but rather the simple oddity that foods that can grow in a whole swathe of places are generally only every brought to our supermarket shelves from one specific place.

Would my palate appreciate a Greek raisin, or a Trinidadian avocado, or perhaps, a Pakistani orange?

Talking of eating local, if we go local do we end up divided?