In the wake of the foreign airlines vs Firs Class Travellers ruse I found myself also wondering how many more foreign businesses are supposedly ripping us off. From telecoms to transportation to cable tv to school fees to visa fees by mind was on a non stop search for potential rippers. This lead to instant headache accompanied by vicious hunger. At that point I realised I left the most important part out of my thought process FOOD. Chinese food to be precise. Why are they so expensive?
A plate of Chinese food with rice and the usual stuff in Nigeria cost an average of N5,000. That price effectively puts it as a high end meal enough to buy half bag of rice. But is this what it cost elsewhere? In the UK a plate of Chinese food average about £5 (N1,250). In the US it averages about $10 (N1,500) a plate.
In Nigeria businesses offer several reasons why their goods or services are expensive which makes comparisons all the more difficult. But does this justify the high prices? Especially if you consider that some countries consider Chinese delicates low end meals when compared to their Japanese counterparts.
It will be hard to get the right answer for the questions so we might as well leave it for our law makers to figure out.
Obviously you like Chinese food, Ugo:)I think the trick is, Chinese food is positioned as premium. Nothing more to it. Cos, apart from squid and some other exotic stuff which people hardly buy, nothing they use is imported.
Not really! I am just amazed at the way we treat it as a premium food here.
It might have to do with the lack of variety, coupled with the naivete of our people in food business. There are very few premium Nigerian speciality restaurants, despite our very diverse cuisine. I was in China once, for a week, and they took me to at least 8 speciality restaurants offering food from different parts of the country in that one week. Experienced similar thing in India.