So 60% of Nigerians eat the fish. Government says its a luxury and adds a tax. People bypass the tax. Sounds like its a staple food and not a luxury. Government got greedy.
That makes no sense, just as the numbers in the video don't add up. At 9:56 it is said that stockfish sells for 65 Dollars per kilogram - an expensive food for western countries. Contrast Nigeria's GDP per capita of around 6,000 USD/year PPP and 1,000 USD/year nominal. That weird lady "guesses" that 60% of Nigerians eat this product regularly, which makes just not economic sense. Around minute 12:00 the same odd lady says that the fish with tariffs is sold for 65,000 naira per 30 kgs and without tariffs for 50,000. That would equal 1,36 USD/kg and 1,05 USD/kg. Much more realistic prices for the Nigerian market, but I bet my firstborn that Norway - one of the richest, most expensive and highest-wage countries on the planet today - does not produce stockfish economically at this price. Now, maybe they reveal in the last three minutes that it's not Norwegian but fake chinese plastic stockfish, but then it's misleading.
This is a common scenario in about half the cases described in this video. In the end, you have to wonder, who are the bigger criminals, the government or the smugglers, and it's a very thin line.
@@novacolonel5287what exactly about the lady is weird? You’re math calculation is way off, it’s roughly 2000 Naira to 1 USD but was half that as recently as 2 years ago so the $65 per kg makes sense. Also she said the BODY was a luxury not the heads which trade for a lower price. All in all your comprehension was terrible, maths was wrong and comment overall had bad vibes repeatedly calling that lady weird for no obvious reason.
The reason why they are limited is preserve the resource. Some of these are expensive because they have been pushed to extinction. We have actually lost many species and resources because of wanton pillaging.
@@nyikasplace9886Not really for example caviar was very very common and used as bar food or simply thrown away but we basically hunted them to become one of the most critically endangered species Lobsters were prison food and very cheap but we basically over fished causing very less harvests Stone crab claws were very popular but overfishing basically reduces their population drastically Oysters were much less expansive and feed to basically everyone in factories and workhouses but it was overfished and destroyed their spawning grounds Yes a lot of the price gouging is bullshit but some is for good reasons maple syrup is basically running out and being depleted
Québec Maple producers have a Cartel like grip on supply/wholesale price, the syrup is not as rare as many believe, a business model they probably copied from the DeBeers diamond trade
While the Maple cartel has tighter controls that most, the concept of having an organization that tries to protect a product is hardly new, they come up with rules, grading schemes, and definitions for everything to try an extract the most money possible. Another kiwi cartels story is the so called "fan" shaped kiwi, it's a kiwi that grows wide, almost like multiple kiwis got fused together but it really is just a single fruit, these misshapen fruits grow much more abundantly than the egg shaped ones, however you almost never see them in stores, New Zealand put strict definitions on the shape that are "acceptable for export" and wouldn't you know those much more abundant varieties are not acceptable simply due to their shape, over here in the US they slapped various grading terms on them, as a result most every store only buys "the best" grades so again these much more abundant varieties don't bring the overall price down. I do however see them quite a bit at farmers markets where fruit doesn't need to look "perfect", and yeah they taste just the same as all other kiwi.
A mafia is a criminal organization that engages in a variety of illegal activities while a cartel is an organization of producers who agree to control supply or prices. The Federation operates more like a cartel.
@@annejeppesen160 problem is if there is only a limited number of producers in a closed circle allowed to produce it. No problem on limited production but it has ti be a fair process such as an annual lottery of licenses to every applicant who meets the requirements.
Go the same as kiwifruit, no differences, the white man stole the original kiwifruit from China and grow in New Zealand during or after the British smuggled opium into China....that led to two Opium Wars.
@@TNT_FPVBritish and Americans smuggled opium from India into China during the 1800s, they bribed Chinese officials and branded their drug as longevity medicine to get the Chinese addicted to it. But today the entire Western world has an epidemic of fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine etc...Yes, payback is a bich. 😅😊
That happened ages ago. China now copies everything from Communism, fast food, car, planes, ships, electronics, Taiwanese pineapples to computer chips, and military equipment.
Ottawa didn’t do anything, that’s a Quebec policy made by the provincial government. Ottawa still gets angry but they want buyers and Quebec to compromise.
@@darkbrightnorth Walmart drove all competition out of business and now we pay double for worse quality. Quebec is fighting a losing battle courtesy of globalization and multibillion dollar corporations
The fact that a corporation could claim “intellectual property” for a kiwi that according to the corporation is so labor intensive it’s more than likely if you don’t put in all the necessary time and attention “by hand” you won’t get a good product! Hilariously funny can anyone say Monsanto???????
Whats hilariously about protecting intellectual property? The crops farmed in modern agriculture have not much to do with natural products they are engineered to have the best properties with lots of research investment. Golden Kiwi was invented just like other investitions and would not exist without the effort some people put into it.
@@gordonwybo898 Yes, but what is cultivated there has not much to do with the wild form. Goldkiwi itself was "invented" by farmers/ bioengineers then they said that the former strain died by pests and that a new strain was "invented" and established. Without the very cost intense research work there would not be any gold kiwi (anymore). And this story is the same for most of our industrially cultivated crops.
I'm on the smuggler's side on this. These products have been artificially made expensive through a system of monopoly and taxes. the smuggler's are working for the greater good by breaking the system, allowing more people access to these artificially inflated prices..
There is no reason for every person to have the right to everything. I don't mind at all if some products are so expensive that only someone can afford them. We are not in communism, thank God!
Nah, it's because unscrupulous thief's who don't follow legislation (much of which are created for environmental and preservation reasons) are greedy enough to ruin industries for everybody else for their own benefit
In many cultures, if YOU do not pay the bureaucrat(s), the job comes to a screeching halt. In the USA, Congress has given our bureaucrats the power to make and change their "rules" at will and treat those rules as laws.
I appreciate this wasn't just slapping videos together as a Marathon. Thank you for putting extra time in putting this together as a whole presentation (map, pictures and narration).
The Chinese gooseberry is a very different fruit from the common Hayward (Green, public domain) or G3 (Gold, Zespri IP) kiwifruit varieties which were both specifically crossbred to their current standards in New Zealand. Safe to say (unless you live in China) that every Kiwifruit you have ever seen is from a variety that was developed in NZ.
Claiming Intellectual Property on produce is ridiculous. If I can eat that fruit, poop out the seeds, and then have those seeds sprout, why shouldn’t I be able to sell them? I paid for them. I nurtured them. I’m all for people banding together and getting fair wages, but banding together to fix a price is just legalized monopolies.
If you create new apple with unique features, wouldn't you want it protected if you want to sell those apples or trees? Why apples (a product) should be treated differently from unique flower/plant or electronic device etc created by someone?
@@lacebycr no, you did not create anything, you mixed up some genes to achieve a hybridization, its more or less like cooking not creation. This type of "IP" should be banned and those who seek legal protection for it should be criminally prosecuted.
Go ahead and plant the seeds in your garden and grow your own. But don't go into the business of putting your original supplier out of business. I agree that there's something wrong with fixing prices like the maple syrup people do in Canada. But I'm confused by the story about kiwis because kiwis don't necessarily grow true to type from seed. I've grown kiwi plants just from putting the seeds in the ground (haven't got any fruit yet). Probably if the plants ever do produce fruit, it won't be the same or as good as what I bought in the shop. And it takes six years or more for a kiwi plant to mature to fruit-bearing age. Whoever developed the golden kiwi must have put years if not decades into careful breeding, and is probably creating new trees by propagation from cuttings (clones) rather than nurturing seeds from the fruit into trees. This is why and how they can protect their variety instead of just anybody raising the same fruit from a seed inside a kiwi they bought in the supermarket. I'm confused by those "kiwi sprouts" smuggled into China. If it was sprouted seeds, the trees probably aren't true to the patented fruit, and this the Chinese fruit would be a counterfeit and not real Golden Kiwis. Had to have been someone taking (stealing) cuttings from someone's trees and getting them to sprout and then taking the sprouted cuttings to China.
Maple syrup should not be illegal anywhere in the world. My family owned a Maple syrup farm in the Catskills mountains NYS. The maple trees and tapped for their naturally oozing sap and boiled to make candy and syrup. NYS is laden with Maple Trees! The USA and Canada is laden with Maple Trees. Maple syrup has been a staple of food since the beginning of time! Shameful!!
Wow. You sold me. I appreciate someone who makes matter of fact logical points. Maple anything is as much a part of American tradition as......the flag.
Hi there from Ottawawa. What are the small producers not allowed to do? I guess you mean produce the quantity they want, and fix their own prices? Want to be sure I get it...
@@bungarnayak Yeah... First Nations peoples already knew it when French colonizers got here in 1534. As the oldest Indigenous people in North America probably walked over from Northern Asia some 10,000-15,000 or more years ago, wow... it could even be millennia!
We need the federal government to tell Quebec to lower the regulations so we can have a bit more. I mean that might cause a political crisis but worth it.
Yeah, those regulators were being too greedy, only helping their own pockets by limiting supply. I think that’s partly what the video was saying; regulators are becoming too greedy, so organized knowledgeable people are coming in and balancing things out. I have to say, most thieves don’t operate under this pretence. Most thieves are the greedy ones, but maybe not in this instance.
@@darkbrightnorth actively boycott the product, buy outside the region and they will have no choice but to lower their price. If they can manipulate supply to drive demand, you can do the same by pressuring them to loosen supply to lower cost. You may have to use a less superior product temporarily, but eventually things balance out so everyone wins.
Interesting. I wonder if the rise in golden kiwifruit orchards in China is responsible for Zespri developing the (insanely delicious) ruby red kiwifruit - they are very rare, only showing up in supermarkets for a couple of weeks a year. I imagine Zespri will be holding tightly to keep control over those - they almost taste like a kiwifruit/raspberry mix.
They better make it while the irons hot, the cannabis industry will ruin that for them in a hurry. The process is not all that dissimilar from different strains of cannabis being cloned together. A buddy of mine once showed me a tomato plant growing cannabis at the same time as ripe red delicious tomatoes. He was no "college educated, professionally trained" individual either, quite the opposite.
If the Chinese kiwis are labelled as coming from China then there should be less issue. If they take less care than New Zealand, then people who want this fruit will get the "real" ones. If China is mislabeling them, then that is definitely a legal issue.
@@crisnmaryfam7344that would’ve been a grafted plant, not a hybrid. Tomatoes and cannabis can’t hybridise. Most citrus trees are grafted. A good disease resistant root stock and the top being a good fruit yielding variety.
Exactly! This is the world upside down. We should be able to grow whatever, wherever we want (provided that it is safe). Money corrupts all. It criminalizes honest citizens; it grants horrible corporations to steal peoples' basic needs. Shame on them!
Not so simple. Many of the plants and fruits etc that we eat were not a product of simply nature but a product of human intervention. The Apple is the way it is today mainly because of human intervention. This is an agricultural skill which can become someone’s intellectual property.
I love that while talking about Canadian maple syrup, they used a photo of Laurel & Ash's Hudson Valley syrup. It's also an extremely good and extremely rare artesanal product... from NY state. Recognized the bottle at once because I'm from NY... but also if you stop at 1:42 you can clearly read the label. Like showing a bottle of Franciacorta while talking about Champagne, lol.
Not for the kiwis it isn't mad, that stuff takes years to develop, during which the company is sinking cost with no return in sight. THEY took the risk, THEY put the effort in and hire armies of farmers to tend the finicky plants. And for that, _they get to reap the rewards_ Not a bunch of criminals growing them. Because if it were unrestricted, if anybody could grow golden kiwis, the Chinese would undercut and wipe out the new Zealand farmers. And now you have a bunch of shoddy Chinese farms putting profit over quality. If you want to know why that's a bad thing, go learn why the Red Delicious apple used to be delicious but is garbage now. Creating and farming new and better fruits and vegetables isn't just sticking seeds in the ground and waiting.
the kiwis took years and years of genetic engineering to make. you just see it differently because its food but that effort should be rewarded. or else why would anyone innovate? what is the incentive? just for your neighbor to steal it and profit of your years of dedicated research? thats communism.
That's funny because there's laws against price fixing and that's exactly what they're doing with maple syrup and I as a regular civilian would be prosecuted for such crime but since it's big business they say nothing to these people this is one of the stupidest things in the world maple syrup sucks
Yes but it’s an important patriotic and national symbol so it is a very important industry, and Quebec’s provincial government regulates it more than the federal.
I grew up in Western Maryland. We have families that have maple syrup farms. They make pure maple syrup, maple candy, etc. We never needed to purchase Canadian maple syrup because we had the good stuff in our backyard.
When it comes to fruit and stuff thats easy to grow and sustain (if done responsibly and youre not like pouring harsh chemicals or using all the water an area has that people need) i dont feel bad at all. Now when its something like poaching animals that are at risk or over fishing then i expect limits to make sure the population is healthy, plants dont have that issue though, in fact they tend to go rampant and take over other plants if left unchecked. Artificially controlling and overtaxing a market to increase prices is just scummy too when it comes to staple foods
Hearing that corporate lapdog defend IPs on seeds was funny man. If only people knew how much these evil corporations harass farmers. Oh nooo my profit margins 😢😢😢
Copyright law prevent people from using the best practice once it is developed. If nobody can use it, and only one person profits that's a problem. It isn't supposed to work that way but so often the system is abused.
I agree as long as it’s not invasive or harmful to the local ecosystem you’re trying to grow them in. Louisiana red crawfish aren’t allowed to be sent live to some places because if they get loose they have no natural predators in some places and can destroy that ecosystem.
It’s funny because these groups suing the smugglers, like “the federation” (ridiculous name) are suing them for something they’d do themselves very happy and without a second thought which is to take advantage of the market. Thats literally what they were already doing.
Zespiri makes sense, its a relatively new fruit made in a lab. Just like any invention they should have a right to capitalize on their R&D. The maple syrup trees are not made in a lab so to me that's free grabs for the open market.
Zespiri makes absolutely no sense, they did not make it in a lab, in fact they just call it a lab but its simply a greenhouse where they selectively breed the plants. Wich has been a thing for ages and humans have done that long before any laws. In fact, kiwis originated in china, and at native to china, and not a native product of New Zealand. Further, its intrinsicly shitty and has been used in shotty ways for companies to try to claim ownership of seeds and police the growing of food. How is it a free market if the market is not free? Only ONE farm is allowed to grow this produce that anyone should be able to grow and sell? Hownis that a free market, to me that sounds like a loophole to a easy monopoly where you can even sue other farms for your seed popping up there! The smuggler? A bird, the wind, a squirrel, because you cannot stop nature from doing what it does and spreading seeds. Just look at monsonto and how hated they are and how much they make sueing farmers for not having permits to grow corn that blew in from the neighbors farm. It makes litteraly no sense to make produce an IP and the man even stumbles over and stutters on his words trying to bullshit a good enough explanation that is just pulled right out of his ass with nothing to back any claims. They even keep saying in the video, that they own the fruit because they worked so hard growing it, and then pretend that the farmers in china didnt fo the exact same level of care to grow their produce as well. Like, for the most part, food don't just grow with 0 time spent caring for it. So by the logic they said of "i put work into it and so i can sell it" the farms in china should be able to sell it as well. Its not like the maple syrup wich is a limited supply, you cannot FARM maple syrup, and you can only tap so many trees and get so much from each tree, it is finite and if left in a "free market" with 0 regulation, maple could just get farmed to extinction, but the kiwis are farmed, and cannot grow in the wild as it is domesticated and needs humans to thrive. So it should not be as heavily regulates that there is only one or two companies allowed to sell the fruit. Especially when these companies don't really have longevity in mind with these produce, look no further than dole. One of only two companies selling you bananas, they all grow from a cloned monoculture with NO seed, why? They didn't want the seed to spread, so selectively breed it to have no seed, and the only way they get more banana plants is by cloning the plant. Then one fungus spread through the entire crop, making that specific flavor and species of banana go extinct. They had to fall back on a different, less flavorful variety, wich is what we known of today as modern banana, and the old banana is what artificial banana is based on and why artificial banana doesn't seem to taste like actual banana. now we have an expensive variety of banana that almost tastes like the old variety but it is rare and idk if its even owned by dole honestly. But yea all in all, making food that you grow an IP only promotes shitty "innovation" that lessens nutrients in favor of more sugar, and promotes cloning over seed growth, making seedless fruits, and generally promotes monopolies over an open market.
Kiwi regulation has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I've heard of. If you grow a new plant and try to be greedy with it, then what you get is exactly what you deserve
Maple syrup isn't rare you got Maple trees growing pretty much around the US and other parts of Canada and I don't know maybe the world. It's the Maple cartel that drives up the price
Exploring the world's most smuggled foods and uncovering their high value highlights your dedication to revealing intriguing and often hidden aspects of global trade. Your ability to shed light on such a fascinating topic not only educates but also sparks curiosity about the complex world of international food trade. It’s impressive how you bring such important and captivating information to the forefront. And I am Floating Village Life.
Kiwi (Chinese name mihoutao) was brought from China by a teacher to New Zealand and then later named Kiwi from the bird named kiwi. So I don’t think taking it back to China is smuggling. It’s New Zealand that kind of actually stole them from China .
Amazing how random things end up being viewed as valuable. Like the minute some poor animal minding it's own business is believed to have "magical powers" by the Chinese. It's almost certainly becoming an endangered species.
Golden kiwis? Just tried my first. OMG. I already liked kiwis, these are better, but the price? I understand, that's a pickle...as it were. I tend to eat fruit whole and with the skin, etc. wherever possible. I need all the fiber I can get. I had no idea there was all this controversy about them!
"There been more illegal kiwis than legal ones", oh no, that's terrible, the food is more accessible! What about the profits?! Can someone think of the profits?!
So, hypothetically, what's stopping me from growing these kiwi fruits in my backyard assuming conditions are right? If I buy the fruit, wouldn't I be entitled to do whatever I please with what comes with it?
@@selalewow So as long as no financial/monetary transaction occurs, would current "laws" allow me to share, and distribute it as I like? Hypothetical, of course lol
@@GeneSaw Not a legal expert but as long as you are not making a profit or allowing others to make a profit I do not think there is anything to press charges about.
There seems to be several issues conflated, to which the solution offered is market monopolies for preferred businesses. If wild stocks need protection, then licensing AND restocking programs can solve that problem WITHOUT monopolies. As for the maple syrup and kiwi monopolies intended to reduce supply so prices can be artificially inflated,, that might be "legal", but it is not a legitimate use of taxpayer dollars to run such programs. Taxpayers are consumers. Governments should not be using tax dollar to help corporations maintain higher profits by restricting supply so corporation can charge consumers inflated prices. I don't approve of theft from fisheries or nets, but I don't see a problem routing product through countries with favorable taxation and regulation. Ultimately the whole reason corporations exist is to server the taxpaying consumer markets and FREE & FAIR MARKETS are legitimate, while market monopolies are exploitative. What this documentary shows is that if you or I in our communities wanted to produce one of these goods for our own communities, the governments that we fund would interfere to protect the interests of the market monopolies they prefer. And they would do that, even if the market monopoly didn't serve our communities. So we would be without any supply of the good., simply because our local businesses wouldn't be an authorized dealer in the good. I think we can all see how this could be dangerous for consumers and damaging to free markets. Sure, there's a place for regulations of natural resources and quality assurance, but market exclusion and price fixing are illegal, regardless of the policies that have been introduced to establish new market monopolies. I don't think anyone, including shareholders would argue with this point of view.
Control the market/supply and jack up the rice. Diamonds are actually abundant and should be cheap. DeBeers thru various tactics control 95% of diamonds.
As a norwegian I visited a fish museum in Tromsø and the story is that there are several types of quality in stock fish, Nigaria gets the lowest grade stock fish, and to see it still has an illegal marked is strange. Also that the stock fish is someone regarded.
Thank you for this fascinating video! It’s incredible to see how some foods are so highly prized that they’re smuggled across borders. 😲🍫 Speaking of valuable and cutting-edge technology, how do you think modern machinery is impacting the global trade of such luxury goods? 🚜✨
I don't understand why foods need to be kept artificially expensive. Wouldn't it be better for society if food was actually affordable? Producers exist to serve the consumers, not the other way around. And isn't the government supposed to be on the side of the people instead of business?
The golden kiwis are definitely profit driven. I am allergic to green kiwifruits and I used to be able to eat the much smaller golden ones. Nowadays they are larger and I am allergic to those as well. They've crossbred them for larger yield at the detriment of texture and taste. Why do you need to make it larger? Now it's just a mildly sweeter green kiwi that's yellow. There's a ridiculous amount of cope in that video, it's just a fruit. Maybe they can look at exotic dragonfruit hobbyist growers all over the world sharing their crafts and strategies which improves the fruit for everyone instead. I am now only able to consume expensive red kiwi fruits that are tiny and very expensive. I give up, it sucks.
Not when you spend years cross breeding, growing and choosing the best traits, then cross breeding again and again and again to produce the final breed for years, patent it, build a brand around it, only to be stolen and grown commercially by someone else. The ease of replication isn't an excuse. That's why you aren't allowed to cheat in an exam.
In regards to the fruit fly: Back in 1987 there was a “Med Fly” quarantine. The makers of this film seem to have overlooked that. When traveling West there were Check stations between New Mexico and Arizona where you had to declare and plants or fruits if you were traveling west. I lost some items at one checkpoint. Now the Fruit Fly is common around the area where I live. Some folks confuse them with Gnats. I really hate those little bastards.
They were smuggled. But, i'd call that a bit of a cop out, because new zealand made their own thing way better, and developed it. It's like europeans messing with china's gunpowder until they made percussion-cap firearms while china was still fighting itself and had locked borders.
@@bradley4465 a teacher took some wild sprouts from china. But the fruit changed and was carefully changed and became a whole new fruit by the time it started being exported
The idea that you need a license to grow a fruit is absolutely laughable. The fact lobbyists fight so hard to allow patenting of nature is disgusting, you buy the fruit then you own the fruit including the seeds inside of it and you shouldn't have to get a license to grow said fruit. Now sure maybe you don't have the ability to use a trademarked name, but to say you can't grow them is just asinine
The kiwis were biologically designed to taste better than normals green ones. The brand have invested millions on that seed. To see someone illegally profiting of your work like that is devastating. Patenting is just a way to protect their hard work.
You may grow as much as you like - you just aren´t allowed to sell them. And it´s not a patent of nature, there´s nothing natural about any fruit or vegetable you can buy in a grocery store.
The maple tree has allot of medicinal use. There is a way to make the most potent natural anti acne treatment from the bark known to man. It's better than corn syrup. Worth the money.
What if a farmer doesn't want to join the Federation for any reason? It's not these maple trees are a cultivars like the golden kiwis. I kinda understand the golden kiwi's because they are the ones who put a lot of effort into cultivating them in the first place, but maple trees are free game in my opinion.
Maple syrup is heavily monopolised by cartels, it's not actually hard to come by even in the off-season. We have massive backstock because it's heavily limited how much you are allowed to sell.
imagine bidding for something that you're growing in your own farm. not like its harmful for nature. new zealand can be a monopolistic market? didn't know that. somehow i'm happy that somebody is breaking the market lol. as it seems, its not the food shortage, its the government thats making all the food shortage than the nature itself.
I offer a different perspective here. Environmental protections are not meant to limit supply as the video states. They are usually meant to maintain the sustainability of a resource. This fundamental misunderstanding is the difference between economists and environmental scientists, and represents the value of a good resource economist.
Correct. Bringing the product into Nigeria through neighboring (often landlocked) countries avoid the hefty taxes levied in the Nigerian ports. It was the weakest story of all the reported black market goods. It goes to show how ubiquitous mention of China is in the remainder of the harshest claims of illegal trade. China is always behind some illegal business.
1. Smugglers trade in delicacies, or rare foods. 2. The cost must be high for their to be an incentive to do things illegally. 3. The volume that is smuggled must be very high. Where the ones that get caught are worth millions of dollars. 4. To get high volumes, smuggler's operations must be large. It's not just a few people, but many.
So 60% of Nigerians eat the fish. Government says its a luxury and adds a tax. People bypass the tax. Sounds like its a staple food and not a luxury. Government got greedy.
That makes no sense, just as the numbers in the video don't add up. At 9:56 it is said that stockfish sells for 65 Dollars per kilogram - an expensive food for western countries. Contrast Nigeria's GDP per capita of around 6,000 USD/year PPP and 1,000 USD/year nominal. That weird lady "guesses" that 60% of Nigerians eat this product regularly, which makes just not economic sense. Around minute 12:00 the same odd lady says that the fish with tariffs is sold for 65,000 naira per 30 kgs and without tariffs for 50,000. That would equal 1,36 USD/kg and 1,05 USD/kg. Much more realistic prices for the Nigerian market, but I bet my firstborn that Norway - one of the richest, most expensive and highest-wage countries on the planet today - does not produce stockfish economically at this price.
Now, maybe they reveal in the last three minutes that it's not Norwegian but fake chinese plastic stockfish, but then it's misleading.
This is a common scenario in about half the cases described in this video. In the end, you have to wonder, who are the bigger criminals, the government or the smugglers, and it's a very thin line.
@@WaltRBuck That's likely not the case. Please read my explanation.
@@WaltRBuck It's always the same old story of "Greed lead to Piracy".
@@novacolonel5287what exactly about the lady is weird? You’re math calculation is way off, it’s roughly 2000 Naira to 1 USD but was half that as recently as 2 years ago so the $65 per kg makes sense. Also she said the BODY was a luxury not the heads which trade for a lower price. All in all your comprehension was terrible, maths was wrong and comment overall had bad vibes repeatedly calling that lady weird for no obvious reason.
forced scarcity is basically a cartel.
It makes me real mad that we're forced to live in a capitalist world that is so vehemently against the idea of competition.
@@lasagnahog7695 wtf
The reason why they are limited is preserve the resource. Some of these are expensive because they have been pushed to extinction. We have actually lost many species and resources because of wanton pillaging.
@@person35790you are defending stupidity. You don't protect something by creating artificial shortages. That's basically racketeering
@@nyikasplace9886Not really for example caviar was very very common and used as bar food or simply thrown away but we basically hunted them to become one of the most critically endangered species
Lobsters were prison food and very cheap but we basically over fished causing very less harvests
Stone crab claws were very popular but overfishing basically reduces their population drastically
Oysters were much less expansive and feed to basically everyone in factories and workhouses but it was overfished and destroyed their spawning grounds
Yes a lot of the price gouging is bullshit but some is for good reasons maple syrup is basically running out and being depleted
ngl at 0:05 I thought those were potatoes and it got me thinking "wow they're even smuggling tubers now?" 🤣
Right! I was like no- not russet potatoes? Who needs them that bad id happily ship it to them for free 😂
Same here, my brain said..."potatoes?" first.....took a few seconds for the details to emerge.
You made me laugh 😆 👍🏼
Me too. There is a super expensive potato though. I don't recall the name.
I thought usual suspects referred to me for a change.
Québec Maple producers have a Cartel like grip on supply/wholesale price, the syrup is not as rare as many believe, a business model they probably copied from the DeBeers diamond trade
While the Maple cartel has tighter controls that most, the concept of having an organization that tries to protect a product is hardly new, they come up with rules, grading schemes, and definitions for everything to try an extract the most money possible. Another kiwi cartels story is the so called "fan" shaped kiwi, it's a kiwi that grows wide, almost like multiple kiwis got fused together but it really is just a single fruit, these misshapen fruits grow much more abundantly than the egg shaped ones, however you almost never see them in stores, New Zealand put strict definitions on the shape that are "acceptable for export" and wouldn't you know those much more abundant varieties are not acceptable simply due to their shape, over here in the US they slapped various grading terms on them, as a result most every store only buys "the best" grades so again these much more abundant varieties don't bring the overall price down. I do however see them quite a bit at farmers markets where fruit doesn't need to look "perfect", and yeah they taste just the same as all other kiwi.
As a Quebec maple syrup the maple cartel here f**** us over. They pay us around 2.50$ the pound and export at huge profit
Add in the benefit that properly stored Maple syrup will never spoil, they can hold back as much as they want to the keep prices stable and low.
@@selalewow Don't know of any cartel that sought to keep prices 'low', minimizing profits, not the vibe I'm getting
@@selalewow you mean "keep prices stable and high" don't you?
The Quebec Maple syrup federation had often been referred to as a mafia
A mafia is a criminal organization that engages in a variety of illegal activities while a cartel is an organization of producers who agree to control supply or prices. The Federation operates more like a cartel.
Québec also controles the number of poultry a household can have per year
@@atangapaul1141no
Indeed! Limiting production to increase prices has nothing to do with socialism!!!!
@@annejeppesen160 problem is if there is only a limited number of producers in a closed circle allowed to produce it. No problem on limited production but it has ti be a fair process such as an annual lottery of licenses to every applicant who meets the requirements.
Two Byzantine monks smuggled silkworm eggs out of China into Byzantine empire, by doing so, they put an end of Chinses silk global monopoly.
Go the same as kiwifruit, no differences, the white man stole the original kiwifruit from China and grow in New Zealand during or after the British smuggled opium into China....that led to two Opium Wars.
and China's been getting payback ever since
@@TNT_FPVBritish and Americans smuggled opium from India into China during the 1800s, they bribed Chinese officials and branded their drug as longevity medicine to get the Chinese addicted to it. But today the entire Western world has an epidemic of fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine etc...Yes, payback is a bich. 😅😊
Good love China❤
That happened ages ago. China now copies everything from Communism, fast food, car, planes, ships, electronics, Taiwanese pineapples to computer chips, and military equipment.
So Ottawa deliberately decrease the supply of syrup to raise prices and then they throw a fit when people buy elsewhere ?! FAIL
Ottawa didn’t do anything, that’s a Quebec policy made by the provincial government. Ottawa still gets angry but they want buyers and Quebec to compromise.
Ottawa’s support is why so much syrup production is happening elsewhere in Canada now
@@darkbrightnorth Walmart drove all competition out of business and now we pay double for worse quality. Quebec is fighting a losing battle courtesy of globalization and multibillion dollar corporations
@@jomangeee9180 Quebec is losing because they got arrogant and were beaten out of the market.
Sucks when your monopoly is circumvented. Mah cash cow go poof! Waaaaaah!
The fact that a corporation could claim “intellectual property” for a kiwi that according to the corporation is so labor intensive it’s more than likely if you don’t put in all the necessary time and attention “by hand” you won’t get a good product! Hilariously funny can anyone say Monsanto???????
And of course it's the evil Chinese ruining the pure new Zealand monopoly 😂
Whats hilariously about protecting intellectual property?
The crops farmed in modern agriculture have not much to do with natural products they are engineered to have the best properties with lots of research investment.
Golden Kiwi was invented just like other investitions and would not exist without the effort some people put into it.
@@chaot7777they said they came from China so they aren’t even developed in NZ.
@@gordonwybo898 Yes, but what is cultivated there has not much to do with the wild form.
Goldkiwi itself was "invented" by farmers/ bioengineers then they said that the former strain died by pests and that a new strain was "invented" and established. Without the very cost intense research work there would not be any gold kiwi (anymore).
And this story is the same for most of our industrially cultivated crops.
Cliffs: wealthy companies need to control their markets to stay wealthy.
I'm on the smuggler's side on this. These products have been artificially made expensive through a system of monopoly and taxes. the smuggler's are working for the greater good by breaking the system, allowing more people access to these artificially inflated prices..
For the kiwis and syrup, yes. For the Eels, no.
The Quebec syrup mafia called "The Federation" sure but when it comes to the Kiwi and baby eels NO!
There is no reason for every person to have the right to everything. I don't mind at all if some products are so expensive that only someone can afford them. We are not in communism, thank God!
@@ANDREASDEUTSCH What an idiotic response. What do you think communism is?
For the Lobsters, no, it's not.
So basically it's because of forced scarcity by companies that act more like cartels running rackets.
Got it!
👍
Nah, it's because unscrupulous thief's who don't follow legislation (much of which are created for environmental and preservation reasons) are greedy enough to ruin industries for everybody else for their own benefit
With the exception of Zespri's golden kiwi since they invented it.
@@tom23245 How is that any different than special cannabis strains, and so many other things lol.
Yes, unless a big corp does not lobby for a specific food it stays banned. So essentially only rich can get richer in this world.
And maybe this documentary is funded by them
I'm confused. Are we supposed to feel bad for legalized monopolies and purchased bureaucrats?
In many cultures, if YOU do not pay the bureaucrat(s), the job comes to a screeching halt. In the USA, Congress has given our bureaucrats the power to make and change their "rules" at will and treat those rules as laws.
@@edmartin875 TLDR; Yes
@@edmartin875you mean countries wtf are cultures
Should they be allowed to skirt laws and destroy ecosystems and decimate populations?
@@edmartin875 So what you're saying is, if we stop paying congress, they'll all leave? Well, I'm sold.
I appreciate this wasn't just slapping videos together as a Marathon. Thank you for putting extra time in putting this together as a whole presentation (map, pictures and narration).
How ironic....Before New Zealand started marketing the fruit as "Kiwi Fruit"......it was known as Chinese Gooseberry.
The Chinese gooseberry is a very different fruit from the common Hayward (Green, public domain) or G3 (Gold, Zespri IP) kiwifruit varieties which were both specifically crossbred to their current standards in New Zealand.
Safe to say (unless you live in China) that every Kiwifruit you have ever seen is from a variety that was developed in NZ.
new zealanders named it chinese gooseberry in the first place
i like ripe green kiwi better. it’s sweet and little sour at same time.
Claiming Intellectual Property on produce is ridiculous. If I can eat that fruit, poop out the seeds, and then have those seeds sprout, why shouldn’t I be able to sell them? I paid for them. I nurtured them.
I’m all for people banding together and getting fair wages, but banding together to fix a price is just legalized monopolies.
If you create new apple with unique features, wouldn't you want it protected if you want to sell those apples or trees? Why apples (a product) should be treated differently from unique flower/plant or electronic device etc created by someone?
@@lacebycr no, you did not create anything, you mixed up some genes to achieve a hybridization, its more or less like cooking not creation. This type of "IP" should be banned and those who seek legal protection for it should be criminally prosecuted.
Go ahead and plant the seeds in your garden and grow your own. But don't go into the business of putting your original supplier out of business. I agree that there's something wrong with fixing prices like the maple syrup people do in Canada. But I'm confused by the story about kiwis because kiwis don't necessarily grow true to type from seed. I've grown kiwi plants just from putting the seeds in the ground (haven't got any fruit yet). Probably if the plants ever do produce fruit, it won't be the same or as good as what I bought in the shop. And it takes six years or more for a kiwi plant to mature to fruit-bearing age. Whoever developed the golden kiwi must have put years if not decades into careful breeding, and is probably creating new trees by propagation from cuttings (clones) rather than nurturing seeds from the fruit into trees. This is why and how they can protect their variety instead of just anybody raising the same fruit from a seed inside a kiwi they bought in the supermarket. I'm confused by those "kiwi sprouts" smuggled into China. If it was sprouted seeds, the trees probably aren't true to the patented fruit, and this the Chinese fruit would be a counterfeit and not real Golden Kiwis. Had to have been someone taking (stealing) cuttings from someone's trees and getting them to sprout and then taking the sprouted cuttings to China.
Maple syrup should not be illegal anywhere in the world. My family owned a Maple syrup farm in the Catskills mountains NYS. The maple trees and tapped for their naturally oozing sap and boiled to make candy and syrup. NYS is laden with Maple Trees! The USA and Canada is laden with Maple Trees. Maple syrup has been a staple of food since the beginning of time! Shameful!!
It is not illegal to sell in Canada according to the video. It is just illegal to sell it in Quebec if you don't join to their cartel.
@@Theoryofcatsndogs Americans have no Cartel quotas, as they are against US Federal Law.
@@Theoryofcatsndogs LOL
Wow. You sold me.
I appreciate someone who makes matter of fact logical points.
Maple anything is as much a part of American tradition as......the flag.
Ah yes, the American flag, inspired by the Dutch East India company
In Canada it's a horrible system that doesn't allow small maple syrup producers do what families did for centuries
Centuries? 😂
Hi there from Ottawawa. What are the small producers not allowed to do? I guess you mean produce the quantity they want, and fix their own prices? Want to be sure I get it...
@@bungarnayak Yeah... First Nations peoples already knew it when French colonizers got here in 1534. As the oldest Indigenous people in North America probably walked over from Northern Asia some 10,000-15,000 or more years ago, wow... it could even be millennia!
Gatekeeping food should be illegal. I'm all for authenticity laws, but not laws that push out willing growers/producers.
As a Canadian, I only had the option to try Virgin Maple syrup in High school Cooking Class. Shit was mind changing delicious. It’s even rare here
We need the federal government to tell Quebec to lower the regulations so we can have a bit more. I mean that might cause a political crisis but worth it.
Very much worth it.
Yeah, those regulators were being too greedy, only helping their own pockets by limiting supply. I think that’s partly what the video was saying; regulators are becoming too greedy, so organized knowledgeable people are coming in and balancing things out. I have to say, most thieves don’t operate under this pretence. Most thieves are the greedy ones, but maybe not in this instance.
Artificially Rare.
@@darkbrightnorth actively boycott the product, buy outside the region and they will have no choice but to lower their price. If they can manipulate supply to drive demand, you can do the same by pressuring them to loosen supply to lower cost. You may have to use a less superior product temporarily, but eventually things balance out so everyone wins.
Interesting. I wonder if the rise in golden kiwifruit orchards in China is responsible for Zespri developing the (insanely delicious) ruby red kiwifruit - they are very rare, only showing up in supermarkets for a couple of weeks a year. I imagine Zespri will be holding tightly to keep control over those - they almost taste like a kiwifruit/raspberry mix.
They better make it while the irons hot, the cannabis industry will ruin that for them in a hurry. The process is not all that dissimilar from different strains of cannabis being cloned together. A buddy of mine once showed me a tomato plant growing cannabis at the same time as ripe red delicious tomatoes. He was no "college educated, professionally trained" individual either, quite the opposite.
Those sound awesome I'll have to look for them when I shop. Even as a retired Chef I like new and strange foods to try.
If the Chinese kiwis are labelled as coming from China then there should be less issue. If they take less care than New Zealand, then people who want this fruit will get the "real" ones. If China is mislabeling them, then that is definitely a legal issue.
@@crisnmaryfam7344that would’ve been a grafted plant, not a hybrid. Tomatoes and cannabis can’t hybridise.
Most citrus trees are grafted. A good disease resistant root stock and the top being a good fruit yielding variety.
@@thelandlord111 Also in response to the ‘you can’t breed two species’ haven't you heard of a mule?
It’s sad for consumers when companies are doing these kinda monopolies
Seeds and food should never be Intellectual property. Process sure but never food
Exactly! This is the world upside down.
We should be able to grow whatever, wherever we want (provided that it is safe).
Money corrupts all. It criminalizes honest citizens; it grants horrible corporations to steal peoples' basic needs.
Shame on them!
Never seeds!
If you create a hybrid that you want to own, make it sterile.
Canada wants to be the Maple Syrup Cartel like OPEC. lol
As long as the local plants arnt effected they shouldnt be able to prohibit stuff like this. They dont BELONG to anyone, its nature.
Not so simple. Many of the plants and fruits etc that we eat were not a product of simply nature but a product of human intervention. The Apple is the way it is today mainly because of human intervention. This is an agricultural skill which can become someone’s intellectual property.
I love that while talking about Canadian maple syrup, they used a photo of Laurel & Ash's Hudson Valley syrup. It's also an extremely good and extremely rare artesanal product... from NY state. Recognized the bottle at once because I'm from NY... but also if you stop at 1:42 you can clearly read the label. Like showing a bottle of Franciacorta while talking about Champagne, lol.
I see that kind of thing in many videos.
Intellectual property on food the world has gone mad😂
Monsanto has entered the chat
Not for the kiwis it isn't mad, that stuff takes years to develop, during which the company is sinking cost with no return in sight.
THEY took the risk, THEY put the effort in and hire armies of farmers to tend the finicky plants.
And for that, _they get to reap the rewards_
Not a bunch of criminals growing them.
Because if it were unrestricted, if anybody could grow golden kiwis, the Chinese would undercut and wipe out the new Zealand farmers.
And now you have a bunch of shoddy Chinese farms putting profit over quality.
If you want to know why that's a bad thing, go learn why the Red Delicious apple used to be delicious but is garbage now.
Creating and farming new and better fruits and vegetables isn't just sticking seeds in the ground and waiting.
the kiwis took years and years of genetic engineering to make. you just see it differently because its food but that effort should be rewarded. or else why would anyone innovate? what is the incentive? just for your neighbor to steal it and profit of your years of dedicated research? thats communism.
I'm gonna say it... The "smugglers" are the good guys here
That's funny because there's laws against price fixing and that's exactly what they're doing with maple syrup and I as a regular civilian would be prosecuted for such crime but since it's big business they say nothing to these people this is one of the stupidest things in the world maple syrup sucks
Canada doesn't own maple syrup not least because maple syrup harvesting is a practice that spans the entire north east and existed before Canada did
Yes but it’s an important patriotic and national symbol so it is a very important industry, and Quebec’s provincial government regulates it more than the federal.
Fuckem
I grew up in Western Maryland. We have families that have maple syrup farms. They make pure maple syrup, maple candy, etc. We never needed to purchase Canadian maple syrup because we had the good stuff in our backyard.
When it comes to fruit and stuff thats easy to grow and sustain (if done responsibly and youre not like pouring harsh chemicals or using all the water an area has that people need) i dont feel bad at all. Now when its something like poaching animals that are at risk or over fishing then i expect limits to make sure the population is healthy, plants dont have that issue though, in fact they tend to go rampant and take over other plants if left unchecked. Artificially controlling and overtaxing a market to increase prices is just scummy too when it comes to staple foods
Oh, are Kiwis and Apples staple foods ?
They all want a piece of the pie. If you can undercut the next guy, why not.
Hearing that corporate lapdog defend IPs on seeds was funny man. If only people knew how much these evil corporations harass farmers. Oh nooo my profit margins 😢😢😢
Never thought I would hear that syrup cartel to be a thing
Copyright law prevent people from using the best practice once it is developed. If nobody can use it, and only one person profits that's a problem. It isn't supposed to work that way but so often the system is abused.
There are indeed two side of the coin. But you wouldn't hear that from a channel called 'Business Insider' ...
In this case the fruit licence is critical, otherwise the new varieties aren’t developed
This is just theft
Everyone should have the right to grow any food they want regardless of where they’re at.
I agree as long as it’s not invasive or harmful to the local ecosystem you’re trying to grow them in. Louisiana red crawfish aren’t allowed to be sent live to some places because if they get loose they have no natural predators in some places and can destroy that ecosystem.
It’s funny because these groups suing the smugglers, like “the federation” (ridiculous name) are suing them for something they’d do themselves very happy and without a second thought which is to take advantage of the market. Thats literally what they were already doing.
The numpties in charge of the U.K. prohibit the catching eels, but allow the catching of the tiny elvers, by the million.
If 6 million gallons is worth 18.4 million dollars, then that’s $3/gallon not $40!
Stockfish is definitely up there!!! 😂😂
What a fascinating and comprehensive review. Processes behind these products can be hard to digest.
Zespiri makes sense, its a relatively new fruit made in a lab. Just like any invention they should have a right to capitalize on their R&D. The maple syrup trees are not made in a lab so to me that's free grabs for the open market.
Zespiri makes absolutely no sense, they did not make it in a lab, in fact they just call it a lab but its simply a greenhouse where they selectively breed the plants. Wich has been a thing for ages and humans have done that long before any laws.
In fact, kiwis originated in china, and at native to china, and not a native product of New Zealand.
Further, its intrinsicly shitty and has been used in shotty ways for companies to try to claim ownership of seeds and police the growing of food.
How is it a free market if the market is not free? Only ONE farm is allowed to grow this produce that anyone should be able to grow and sell? Hownis that a free market, to me that sounds like a loophole to a easy monopoly where you can even sue other farms for your seed popping up there! The smuggler? A bird, the wind, a squirrel, because you cannot stop nature from doing what it does and spreading seeds. Just look at monsonto and how hated they are and how much they make sueing farmers for not having permits to grow corn that blew in from the neighbors farm.
It makes litteraly no sense to make produce an IP and the man even stumbles over and stutters on his words trying to bullshit a good enough explanation that is just pulled right out of his ass with nothing to back any claims.
They even keep saying in the video, that they own the fruit because they worked so hard growing it, and then pretend that the farmers in china didnt fo the exact same level of care to grow their produce as well. Like, for the most part, food don't just grow with 0 time spent caring for it. So by the logic they said of "i put work into it and so i can sell it" the farms in china should be able to sell it as well.
Its not like the maple syrup wich is a limited supply, you cannot FARM maple syrup, and you can only tap so many trees and get so much from each tree, it is finite and if left in a "free market" with 0 regulation, maple could just get farmed to extinction, but the kiwis are farmed, and cannot grow in the wild as it is domesticated and needs humans to thrive. So it should not be as heavily regulates that there is only one or two companies allowed to sell the fruit.
Especially when these companies don't really have longevity in mind with these produce, look no further than dole.
One of only two companies selling you bananas, they all grow from a cloned monoculture with NO seed, why? They didn't want the seed to spread, so selectively breed it to have no seed, and the only way they get more banana plants is by cloning the plant. Then one fungus spread through the entire crop, making that specific flavor and species of banana go extinct. They had to fall back on a different, less flavorful variety, wich is what we known of today as modern banana, and the old banana is what artificial banana is based on and why artificial banana doesn't seem to taste like actual banana. now we have an expensive variety of banana that almost tastes like the old variety but it is rare and idk if its even owned by dole honestly.
But yea all in all, making food that you grow an IP only promotes shitty "innovation" that lessens nutrients in favor of more sugar, and promotes cloning over seed growth, making seedless fruits, and generally promotes monopolies over an open market.
So OPEC for food. Charming.
Dried fish a luxury..lol😂
they want the chemicals that make the food taste and be processable in a familiar way.
same as saffron
The way you illustrated each step in the process is very clear! Is there any particularly important step in this process?
That kiwi production is so labor intensive. Hell! How do you thi8nk most fruits and vegs are processed?
Having a whole farm and being told you can’t sell your product sounds crazy to me
That’s just evil of them honestly
Oh it is. But that's just how nasty people who want control
Amazing work ! Great picture and content ! Bravo !
How can a fruit be an intellectual property? That's bonkers.
I invented a fruit using your fruit, now you can never have it. Lol 😆
Kiwi regulation has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I've heard of. If you grow a new plant and try to be greedy with it, then what you get is exactly what you deserve
Maple syrup isn't rare you got Maple trees growing pretty much around the US and other parts of Canada and I don't know maybe the world. It's the Maple cartel that drives up the price
Quebec Maple Syrup
Golden Kiwi
Stockfish
Fish Maw
Pearl Lobster
Angulas
For the uninitiated, this isn't a "documentary", this is just a repost combining a bunch of older (individual) videos..
Aren't almost all documentaries just a combination of old footage with added narration?
Ive seen all of them, i know its scummy, i just watch these when my cancer is acting up, and i cant get out of bed
@@dundun8640I’m so sorry to hear, wish you the best
I dont think theres a problem with that
@@severalverysmallmangosno, they are certainly not.
Exploring the world's most smuggled foods and uncovering their high value highlights your dedication to revealing intriguing and often hidden aspects of global trade. Your ability to shed light on such a fascinating topic not only educates but also sparks curiosity about the complex world of international food trade. It’s impressive how you bring such important and captivating information to the forefront. And I am Floating Village Life.
Kiwi (Chinese name mihoutao) was brought from China by a teacher to New Zealand and then later named Kiwi from the bird named kiwi. So I don’t think taking it back to China is smuggling. It’s New Zealand that kind of actually stole them from China .
This is correct... but somehow lost on this production...
@@patrickdelrue546the irony is that I got to know about the history of kiwi origin from a video of this same YT channel
A lot of these are great examples of what happens when the government tries to limit quantities and control prices. It just makes a mess
Some smart business decisions mentioned here
Amazing how random things end up being viewed as valuable. Like the minute some poor animal minding it's own business is believed to have "magical powers" by the Chinese. It's almost certainly becoming an endangered species.
Golden kiwis? Just tried my first. OMG. I already liked kiwis, these are better, but the price? I understand, that's a pickle...as it were. I tend to eat fruit whole and with the skin, etc. wherever possible. I need all the fiber I can get. I had no idea there was all this controversy about them!
Those baby eels to Spain are like Whitebait to NZ/kiwis!
"There been more illegal kiwis than legal ones", oh no, that's terrible, the food is more accessible! What about the profits?! Can someone think of the profits?!
Sounds like they just want the money to go to their pockets 😂
No country, company or person should have a monopoly on food. That’s unethical. Good on the “smugglers” aka Robinhoods.
So, hypothetically, what's stopping me from growing these kiwi fruits in my backyard assuming conditions are right? If I buy the fruit, wouldn't I be entitled to do whatever I please with what comes with it?
You probably could, if it was for your own consumption. The problem is if you try to sell them.
@@selalewow So as long as no financial/monetary transaction occurs, would current "laws" allow me to share, and distribute it as I like? Hypothetical, of course lol
@@GeneSaw Not a legal expert but as long as you are not making a profit or allowing others to make a profit I do not think there is anything to press charges about.
Just call it a new variety that you invented. Problem solved.
Food should be no one's intellectual property.
There seems to be several issues conflated, to which the solution offered is market monopolies for preferred businesses. If wild stocks need protection, then licensing AND restocking programs can solve that problem WITHOUT monopolies. As for the maple syrup and kiwi monopolies intended to reduce supply so prices can be artificially inflated,, that might be "legal", but it is not a legitimate use of taxpayer dollars to run such programs. Taxpayers are consumers. Governments should not be using tax dollar to help corporations maintain higher profits by restricting supply so corporation can charge consumers inflated prices. I don't approve of theft from fisheries or nets, but I don't see a problem routing product through countries with favorable taxation and regulation. Ultimately the whole reason corporations exist is to server the taxpaying consumer markets and FREE & FAIR MARKETS are legitimate, while market monopolies are exploitative. What this documentary shows is that if you or I in our communities wanted to produce one of these goods for our own communities, the governments that we fund would interfere to protect the interests of the market monopolies they prefer. And they would do that, even if the market monopoly didn't serve our communities. So we would be without any supply of the good., simply because our local businesses wouldn't be an authorized dealer in the good. I think we can all see how this could be dangerous for consumers and damaging to free markets. Sure, there's a place for regulations of natural resources and quality assurance, but market exclusion and price fixing are illegal, regardless of the policies that have been introduced to establish new market monopolies. I don't think anyone, including shareholders would argue with this point of view.
Control the market/supply and jack up the rice. Diamonds are actually abundant and should be cheap. DeBeers thru various tactics control 95% of diamonds.
As a norwegian I visited a fish museum in Tromsø and the story is that there are several types of quality in stock fish, Nigaria gets the lowest grade stock fish, and to see it still has an illegal marked is strange. Also that the stock fish is someone regarded.
Fellas even patented 'hakuna matata' a swahili from East Africa
Thank you for this fascinating video! It’s incredible to see how some foods are so highly prized that they’re smuggled across borders. 😲🍫 Speaking of valuable and cutting-edge technology, how do you think modern machinery is impacting the global trade of such luxury goods? 🚜✨
I don't understand why foods need to be kept artificially expensive. Wouldn't it be better for society if food was actually affordable? Producers exist to serve the consumers, not the other way around. And isn't the government supposed to be on the side of the people instead of business?
How can u "make" pure maple syrup when it comes that way straight put of the tree??????
You can add rice smuggling in the Philippines. Wait more than those fancy food.
They were artificially inflating prices, yet it was deemed legal-not considered price manipulation at all. Amazing 😂
patents on food is ridiculous, im going to grow the golden kiwis and id laugh at any person/company trying to stop me.
Well said, after all, kiwifruit is originated in China.
i agree unless if it is on new crossbred fruits which money was spent to bring them into existence, like the kiwis or cosmic crisp
The golden kiwis are definitely profit driven. I am allergic to green kiwifruits and I used to be able to eat the much smaller golden ones. Nowadays they are larger and I am allergic to those as well. They've crossbred them for larger yield at the detriment of texture and taste. Why do you need to make it larger? Now it's just a mildly sweeter green kiwi that's yellow. There's a ridiculous amount of cope in that video, it's just a fruit. Maybe they can look at exotic dragonfruit hobbyist growers all over the world sharing their crafts and strategies which improves the fruit for everyone instead. I am now only able to consume expensive red kiwi fruits that are tiny and very expensive. I give up, it sucks.
Depends on where you live, they are hard to grow.
Not when you spend years cross breeding, growing and choosing the best traits, then cross breeding again and again and again to produce the final breed for years, patent it, build a brand around it, only to be stolen and grown commercially by someone else.
The ease of replication isn't an excuse. That's why you aren't allowed to cheat in an exam.
Just like De Beers’ diamonds.
So rich want to stay rich? I liked this video
Vermont Maple syrup is better anyways
In regards to the fruit fly:
Back in 1987 there was a “Med Fly” quarantine. The makers of this film seem to have overlooked that. When traveling West there were Check stations between New Mexico and Arizona where you had to declare and plants or fruits if you were traveling west. I lost some items at one checkpoint. Now the Fruit Fly is common around the area where I live. Some folks confuse them with Gnats. I really hate those little bastards.
Guilds and Unions who make an industry artificially exclusive are pure evil.
Ok but kiwis were originally from China how did they get to New Zealand? Oh wait…
They were smuggled. But, i'd call that a bit of a cop out, because new zealand made their own thing way better, and developed it. It's like europeans messing with china's gunpowder until they made percussion-cap firearms while china was still fighting itself and had locked borders.
@@bradley4465 a teacher took some wild sprouts from china. But the fruit changed and was carefully changed and became a whole new fruit by the time it started being exported
The idea that you need a license to grow a fruit is absolutely laughable. The fact lobbyists fight so hard to allow patenting of nature is disgusting, you buy the fruit then you own the fruit including the seeds inside of it and you shouldn't have to get a license to grow said fruit. Now sure maybe you don't have the ability to use a trademarked name, but to say you can't grow them is just asinine
The kiwis were biologically designed to taste better than normals green ones. The brand have invested millions on that seed. To see someone illegally profiting of your work like that is devastating. Patenting is just a way to protect their hard work.
Try growing the seeds and tell me how you're later harvest works out for you.
@@ExiledOne250 Since when has China ever honored a patent ?
@@edmartin875 … uhhhh, Huh! Maybe, never?
You may grow as much as you like - you just aren´t allowed to sell them. And it´s not a patent of nature, there´s nothing natural about any fruit or vegetable you can buy in a grocery store.
I can live without having to consume these foods
Food should be no one's intellectual property
0:00 potatoes 🥔
(Edit: Nvm those are 🥝)
The maple tree has allot of medicinal use. There is a way to make the most potent natural anti acne treatment from the bark known to man. It's better than corn syrup. Worth the money.
This should be a heist in the game GTA
It will be awesome to play and informative
Can't you just grow a maple tree in your back and extract it 🤔
Yes. But you may want to read up on it. It's cold area related. There is a reason why it is a product of only New England in the USA.
@@edmartin875and Michigan...
“Why did you go to jail”
“I stole syrup”
What if a farmer doesn't want to join the Federation for any reason? It's not these maple trees are a cultivars like the golden kiwis. I kinda understand the golden kiwi's because they are the ones who put a lot of effort into cultivating them in the first place, but maple trees are free game in my opinion.
It's called COMPETITION.
That’s why bringing food in as a visitor or tourist is highly illegal here in Australia!!
Golden kiwi is phenomenal.❤
Maple syrup is heavily monopolised by cartels, it's not actually hard to come by even in the off-season. We have massive backstock because it's heavily limited how much you are allowed to sell.
imagine bidding for something that you're growing in your own farm. not like its harmful for nature. new zealand can be a monopolistic market? didn't know that. somehow i'm happy that somebody is breaking the market lol.
as it seems, its not the food shortage, its the government thats making all the food shortage than the nature itself.
I offer a different perspective here. Environmental protections are not meant to limit supply as the video states. They are usually meant to maintain the sustainability of a resource. This fundamental misunderstanding is the difference between economists and environmental scientists, and represents the value of a good resource economist.
did not understand the fish thing in Nigeria, so the problem is about tax evasion?!
Correct. Bringing the product into Nigeria through neighboring (often landlocked) countries avoid the hefty taxes levied in the Nigerian ports.
It was the weakest story of all the reported black market goods. It goes to show how ubiquitous mention of China is in the remainder of the harshest claims of illegal trade. China is always behind some illegal business.
A fruit should not be illegal to grow.
There Will Always Be Crime For Every Industry And This Will Never Change!
1. Smugglers trade in delicacies, or rare foods.
2. The cost must be high for their to be an incentive to do things illegally.
3. The volume that is smuggled must be very high. Where the ones that get caught are worth millions of dollars.
4. To get high volumes, smuggler's operations must be large. It's not just a few people, but many.