Are wooden shoes considered agriculture? ;-) Terry
On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 2:18 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > OrionWorks wrote: >> It's good to know that Mr. Cornwall has informed of the fact that he >> has important things do. I was beginning to get worried. >> >> Jones, it truly astonishes me to realize that such a small country is >> capable of producing that much output. Puts us (The so-called Bread >> Basket?) to shame. > > Ahem... > > It is, in fact, not all that clear that the Dutch rank second in food > exports. > > Thus spake Wiki: >> The Dutch rank third worldwide in value of agricultural exports, >> behind the United States and France, with exports earning $55 billion >> annually. A significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports are >> derived from fresh-cut plants, flowers, and bulbs, with the >> Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total. The >> Netherlands also exports a quarter of all world tomatoes, and >> one-third of the world's exports of peppers and cucumbers.[21] > > Note, first, they rank third, not second, just behind France. > > And, second, note that this rank is based on total *value* of all > *agricultural* products, which includes very high margin cut flowers and > bulbs, which are shipped worldwide from Holland. These are luxury > goods, not commodity foods, and are priced accordingly. > > In comparison, countries such as U.S., Canada, Argentina, and much of > Europe export huge amounts of low-margin commodity grain. > > I very much doubt that Holland's net *biomass* exports would put them > anywhere near third place in the world. > > If anyone has a source indicating where Holland falls with regard to > actual commodity FOOD exports, rather than total "agricultural" exports, > it would be interesting to see the numbers. > >
