this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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The price of food and other basic commodities will soon rise in many places around the world. What are some commodities that are produced domestically or will remain inexpensive where you live? What do you expect will become more expensive? Please include your country of origin or region of the world in your reply.

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[โ€“] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

As an American, it used to be fossil fuels. I'd go elsewhere and it'd be 3x the price. But lately we seem to be catching up. One thing where we're still likely cheaper are high-end electronics. At least, it looks like the iPhone is still cheaper in the US than almost anywhere else. I remember living abroad a few years ago, colleagues would ask if I could buy an iPhone or Mac on Christmas break and bring it back to them lol

[โ€“] Irelephant@lemm.ee 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Milk. almost all the milk where I live is sourced locally. (ireland)

[โ€“] Irelephant@lemm.ee 1 points 2 hours ago

And eggs, eggs are cheap and always in stock (free-range is also the norm.(

[โ€“] CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Everything becomes more expensive once a market for it is created. Meanwhile local foods like murnong and kangaroo apples are free in Australia.

[โ€“] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

What is murnog? Sounds Klingon

[โ€“] nayminlwin@lemmy.ml 3 points 12 hours ago

Sprouted yellow peas. Available on most street corners of Myanmar cities in the morning, steaming hot. Cheap source of protein and nutrition when added to plain white rice, nutritious and delicious.

[โ€“] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 4 points 17 hours ago

UK: I don't know if it's produced domestically, but pasta is dirt cheap. Own brand spaghetti can be under 60p a kilo. Tinned tomatoes are also cheap, so there you go - dinner.

Potatoes and brown onions are fairly cheap, ditto carrots.

Eggs, of course. ยฃ2.70 ($3.50) a dozen, medium free range.

[โ€“] HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 6 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Dollar tree sells staples at a dollar 25

[โ€“] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Wouldn't you get a better deal if you bought a bigger box of staples at a different retailer?

[โ€“] HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 1 points 3 hours ago

You mean like... at Staples?

[โ€“] RBWells@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

The US is too big for a single answer, but here in Florida bananas are cheap, but potatoes and apples are expensive. Sweet potatoes are often cheap though.

I grow some stuff here, that's not free but is cheap for sure. Okra, jalapeno peppers, watermelon, purple sweet potatoes, basil in the summer. Greens, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, fennel, cilantro in the winter. Mint all year. Have citrus trees and a fig, all dwarf trees so not a huge harvest but an easy one.

I think wine and most booze will get very expensive, grains, so flour, pasta, bagels. Good cheese. A lot of produce since it comes from Mexico and South America and our supreme leader here seems determined to piss them off. Milk will probably stay around the same, maybe domestic cheese. I would logically have said eggs, but apparently not.

[โ€“] polysics@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

Swingline are pretty affordable แ••( แ› )แ•—

[โ€“] lucg@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

The cross-section between high volume and easy to make

  • Vegan replacement products? Easier to make than animals, but low volume so it's more expensive than it needs to be (and often in a higher tax bracket, classified as candy or whatever)
  • Eggs? Needs healthy animals
  • Bananas are clones of each other. Might become an issue at some point, might not. Apples, too, but there's many more variants
  • Maize, tomatoes, potatoes? Grown by the bazillion, cheap, afaik needn't be clones of each other to get (something close enough to) the desired product
  • Rice? The pre-boiled stuff is afaik around the same price as the raw product, that's how large the volumes are
[โ€“] Bloomcole@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

There is only relatively expensive.
Literally everything has gone up with every excuse possible.
Covid, some ship that blocked the Suez canal?!, war in ukraine, not enough rain, too much rain.
Prices never go down after.

[โ€“] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yup. And here we are, still blaming covid for shortages and "supply chain disruptions".

[โ€“] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 27 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I live in the US and honestly, I don't think anything will remain inexpensive. Even stuff that is produced domestically will go up in price because a) the value of the dollar will contine to decrease and b) if companies can get away with increasing prices while pointing to some external excuse, they will.

[โ€“] DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The US overproduces some crops that USAID used to buy and send overseas. The local supply will increase, some reckon by a lot, and prices may crash as local demand is just not there.

[โ€“] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

They will dump the food in a ditch before selling it at a reasonable price.

[โ€“] pivot_root@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

Comparatively speaking, politicians here are pretty inexpensive. It only took one twat a couple hundred million to own the president.

[โ€“] frank@sopuli.xyz 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Gas? It's so much cheaper than the EU, even when it's at its more expensive in the US

[โ€“] Maeve@kbin.earth 4 points 1 day ago

Not when it's not subsidized.

[โ€“] espentan@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Mhm, even when prices are at outrage levels in the US it's probably half the price of what it typically sells for in Europe.

The quality is a little better, though (e.g. less sulfur, typically of a higher octane rating).

[โ€“] naeap@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have no clue here, so can you clarify your last sentence?

Where is the quality better? Europe or USA?

[โ€“] espentan@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Europe has better fuel, due to generally more stringent requirements with regards to emissions.

Source: My dad, who used to work with regulations around such things.

[โ€“] naeap@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago
[โ€“] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lotta cranberry bogs here, and tomatoes.

[โ€“] toadjones79@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is cheese curds a thing where you are? If so, I might be where you are.

[โ€“] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

We have garbage plates here, so maybe not. I mean. I know what cheese curds are, but getting them is annoying! (NJ)

[โ€“] toadjones79@lemm.ee 4 points 22 hours ago

I was going to guess Minnesota when you said garbage plates. But I guess that's different too. Wisconsin (where I am) has tons of cranberry bogs.

US, specifically southeast Michigan: Ramen, bread, and spaghetti, though as other commenters have said everything has gone up, so even these.

[โ€“] iii@mander.xyz 14 points 2 days ago

Clay, I can walk 100 meters and dig it out of the ground for free.

Water, it rains about 200 days a year.

[โ€“] BCsven@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Canada. Lentils, potatoes , rice.

[โ€“] Evkob@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Lentils and potatoes for sure, but we don't really grow rice in Canada. There are some examples, but we get our rice from the US, Thailand, and India, as well as many other countries. I eat rice very regularly and I have no doubt I've never eaten rice grown on Canadian soil.

[โ€“] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No but the question was staples that remain cheap. We buy a lot of Rice from India, even as prices may rise it is still cheap. A 10 or 20 lb bag of rice lasts a long time for meals.

[โ€“] Evkob@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oops, I didn't see that part of the question, my bad! I sure hope rice stays affordable, that and tofu represent like half my diet :P

[โ€“] BCsven@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Mine too. Rice, beans, tofu, lentils, potatoes...and mixed veggies. Luckily we have a local grocery chain that is not Superstore and their prices on staple goods and veggies are like half the amount of Superstore

[โ€“] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml -4 points 2 days ago

Take all this for a grain of salt I'm at work and didn't have time to verify these numbers. I got them from AI, but the order makes sense. They also don't include secondary and tertiary effects. E.g. what tariffs on China will do to goods imported from Japan.

In the United States, corn, soybeans, and wheat are projected to go up a maximum of 5%. We produce upwards of 40% of those goods, so they will be the ones which will impact other countries the most. Meat will go up more. We domestically produce 12-15% of the world supply of pork and beef. Produce is going to be hit badly. Up to 40%.

Gasoline and other fossil fuels is difficult to determine. We import a lot from other countries, directly from Canada, but companies based out of the United States have off shore drilling rights in locations around the world. Increased costs of fossil fuels, may have increased incentive for renewables and nuclear, but oil companies have historically passed those losses on to consumers.