TRUE BLOOD
Monday, May 20, 2013
In this HBO hit show, we are taken to a world where suddenly humans coexist with magical, mythical and legendary beings. In an all too familiar world, but one strange and twisted at the same time. This pop ups to our mind when we analyze today´s banana industry, that we our living strange days, that appears as a parallel reality that we do not begin nor end to comprehend, but are too familiar with.
We have the strong and millenary vampires (multis), that somehow are not able to control a world filled with lesser beings (small, medium operators, containers, etc), and decide to mainstream and even cooperate with this dark characters. We´ve seen the collaboration between the multis and the med operators, in an all too familiar speculative game. At the same time we have “The Authority” (this is just a very curious coincidence) that demands that the vampires mainstream with the humans in a harmonic existence, but the vampires true nature is blood sucking.
We have other magical and mythical creatures, for example the fairies shipping big volumes to an already collapsing Russian market, but their interest are not the same as humans, they have different ways, they are not interested in bananas but in the logistics. We even have bananas that simply disappear into thin air, as it was reported in the Turkish market. Magic!
All in this parallel reality where bananas are in high demand during low season at origin, and vessels are left behind due to the lack of bananas and not the other way around as it would normally be. Where the werewolves hunt for bananas at high prices, for a market that does not want nor need them. For sure can´t pay for them.
This surreal reality is affected by an erratic weather that simply cannot be predicted, temperatures dropping at Ecuador, the heat in Russia is record high, and cold fronts in Mexico, the expected surplus of Colombia and Costa Rica are not coming out, at least not as expected.
We have giants collapsing but not disappearing just to fulfill interest that have nothing to do with bananas, such as creditors that need to keep them alive in order just to not write their poor choices off. Remember if you owe little its your problem, if you owe big its theirs.
These is a crazy reality, the problem is this is an industry where the word crazy is used to often, so craziness is the new normal. Why charter vessels at extremely high spot freights, just to simply dump the cargo into markets that are not demanding the bananas? It´s crazy, but is normal. We would need the powers of Sookie, the mind reading waitress, that everyone including vampires, werewolves and humans covet; and like this industry, Sookie is in constant peril season after season.
After a very tragic year with a resulting impoverished supply chain from producers to importers (come on supermarkets never loose!) the reality is that magic does not exist and the sun shines for all. It is about time to turn off the TV of speculation and fantasy. It will be the “shape-shifters”, the ones that understand this reality and adjust to it that while prevail. For those who do not, it will be their “true blood” that the vampires drink.
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