Frozen Fries and..Egypt?

[storewanderer]

At WinCo was looking over the frozen fries and disappointed with pricing.

WinCo brand 28-32oz fries now at 3.32 and brands of course higher. Much higher.

Then on one side there were 3 SKUs of 14oz "TJ Farms Select" frozen fries. Just $1.14. How bad can they be? Package said distributed by some company in Idaho. That's what I'd expect. Then read further on the back of the package... Product of.... Egypt?

How does this make any sense? Are potato prices so artificially inflated in the US that this supplier in an effort to stay around the $1 price point has done a worldwide search and has procured potatoes from Egypt that they can continue to sell at this $1.14 price point? Just cannot see how this makes any logical sense. I did not end up buying any frozen fries at all.

[HCal]

Potatoes are huge in Egypt, and they export a lot of them to Europe and Russia. I'm just speculating here, but perhaps decreasing demand in Russia has caused them to look for new markets. It's probably not practical to ship fresh potatoes half way around the world, but frozen foods have a global supply chain.

From what I can find, TJ Farms is part of Flagship Food Group, which sells all kinds of frozen foods, and some other packaged items. Their office is in Idaho, but I'm sure they have packing facilities all over the place.

[veteran+]

This may not be germane but there are quite a few middle eastern nations that own huge farms in the USA. They grow cattle and food and ship it back home.

One of the reasons for this is that back home there are strict rules about how much you can cultivate on certain lands (yes, environmental concerns................go figure).

Perhaps they are selling some of this product in America?

[storewanderer]

This makes sense but I still find the pricing thing very odd. How can they sell the imported ones so much cheaper than the US ones are being sold for? A loss leader? Maybe they made a deal with a supplier in Egypt a year ago at a set price and are riding that deal out whereas the US supplied ones have already had a price reset? Who knows.

[rwsandiego]

A middle-class family in Egypt earns anywhere from 78K - 156K Egyptian pounds, which is 2,600 US to 5,050 US dollars. Factor in the lower cost of raw materials and there's the answer. Global shipping costs are not that high. If they were, we wouldn't see items made in China, Bangladesh, and Egypt to name a few.

[storewanderer]

A middle-class family in Egypt earns anywhere from 78K - 156K Egyptian pounds, which is 2,600 US to 5,050 US dollars. Factor in the lower cost of raw materials and there's the answer. Global shipping costs are not that high. If they were, we wouldn't see items made in China, Bangladesh, and Egypt to name a few.

Pretty interesting. I wonder how common this is in the restaurant sector. This is a way to keep costs down I suppose.