I’ve read several articles about record-setting melon prices in Japan. This got me thinking about the prices of various farm-produced commodities. It turns out that some crops can fetch a pretty penny in certain countries relative to the median global price. Here, I’ve derived the maximum ratios of the amount a farmer is paid at the first point of sale for a given item in a given country relative to the median price among all reporting countries. Only commodities where data were available for at least 20 countries were included. All raw data were reported in US dollars per metric ton.

I’ve graphed some of the maximum ratios that exceeded a value of five in the first graph. The second graph only shows maximums associated with Japan. The values are not PPP-adjusted, so either farmers are really rich in Japan, or it is an incredibly expensive country in which to live!

Data source: http://faostat.fao.org/site/351/default.aspx