Bitter taste of tourist scam, a photo from Madeira, Islands

Photographer's Note

Looking at this colourful exhibition of fruit in the Funchal’s Mercado dos Lavradores (Farmers’ Market), you may start to imagine how great they may taste. Indeed, when we entered the market, we were straight away surrounded by people who offered us variety of exotic fruit to taste. The various species of passion fruit were a hit but there were plenty of fruit species which I have seen for the first time in my life. Everything can grow on Madeira. My wife and daughter tasted some fruit and decided to buy some for the hotel. We just picked four fruits for which we paid… 32€. That was quite a surprise to me. I didn’t even bother to ask for the price before because I didn’t expect to pay 8€ per fruit. Slightly disgusted we went to the second floor of the market where we found more stands. Interestingly, the prices were much more reasonable there. We had a chat with the fruit stand owners, they told us that the ground floor stands have fruit imported from South America, indeed I could see in my photo that the label mentioned that the mango comes from Brazil. I was naïve to assume the fruit are local. Also, the fruit which we got to taste were actually supplemented with sugar to improve their taste. The real fruit were less sweet. We had a real demonstration by the real farmers with the local Madeira products in the first floor, sadly we didn’t buy fruit from them anymore. At least we bought there some local dried chili peppers.
80% of population on Madeira relies on tourism. We were happy to spend money there. But after this experience I became much more careful.

I found an interesting guide to the fruit of Madeira:
https://blog.madeira.best/25-fruits-of-madeira-island
The long green one at the back left for example is called delicious fruit or ananas-banana (Monstera deliciosa).

32.648492, -16.904102

COSTANTINO, dedee, Fis2, ChrisJ, ikeharel, PaulVDV, mcmtanyel heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

Critiques | Translate

lousat (139198) 2021-06-09 15:03

Hi Mariusz,maybe I would not have fallen into the trap, after many trips to Africa and the Tropics I can recognize the local fruit compared to the imported one, however if you paid dearly it is because it arrived by plane and therefore fresher than what arrives and matures on ships. Each experience is worthwhile, and the photo, despite being a classic, is really very beautiful and detailed and shows many different species. Have a good night and thanks,Luciano

Silvio1953 (221493) 2021-06-09 22:18

Ciao Mariusz, lovely composition with a lot of fruits, wonderful colors, fine details and splendid sharpness, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio

COSTANTINO (116405) 2021-06-09 22:37

hello dear friend and have a nice day
and a happy evening
fantastic view of these colorful fruits
I like the presentation of this
capture
perfect presentation almost artistic
with great lightness and sharpness
regards
Costantino

jemaflor (147046) 2021-06-09 22:58

Hi Mariusz,
Beautiful colors and composition well done by the vendor and well photographed, nice contrast, appetizing and photogenic, tfs.

dedee (3029) 2021-06-09 23:59

Hi Mariusz
Lovely colours and contrasts and well photographed. The lower floor of the market is the show piece and it is wonderful and I suppose they pay extra for rental etc so charge more for their produce.

ifege (47993) 2021-06-10 0:16

Hi Mariusz
This market must be one targeted at tourists - maybe hidden away would be the one for locals. I notice that there are no prices on the displays. A good market photo of good looking fruit - pity about the rip-off prices.
cheers
Ian

Fis2 (170669) 2021-06-10 0:39

Czesc Mariusz!
Propozycja na diete ;)
Super kadr i kolorki.
Milego dnia.
Krzysztof

ChrisJ (171818) 2021-06-10 0:44

Hi Mariusz,

I recognize all but one of these exotic fruits. Good sharpness and fantastic colour and variety, with excellent repetition. I usually stick to locally grown fruit. eg Dragon fruit for breakfast in Thailand & Vietnam, rambutan in Indonesia, figs in Turkey and so on. Tfs!

ikeharel (113273) 2021-06-10 1:34

A colorful display of the fruits, Mariusz, but tuirned to be a tourists-trap...
Anyway, at least the picture is magnificent with its many colors and the meticulous set-up on the trays.
Have a nice new day,
Ike

pajaran (115805) 2021-06-10 8:41

Pozdrav.

Lep pogled, interesantan i dobar tekst ...
Dobar ponuda voca i povrca, dobro pokazano sa lepim bojama i kontrastom.
Lepe boja voca i povrca, dobar rad, lepa fotografija.

Zelim vam lepo popodne, sve najbolje.
Paja

Tue (92312) 2021-06-10 12:12

Hello Mariusz,
Wow, that was quite a bit of daylight robbery there! Even though those many pieces of fruit look very attractive here, I wouldn't say they are worth €8 a piece. The picture is wonderful with lots of colours and a nice repetition of the many round fruits, which were displayed so nicely.
Lars

jmdias (115072) 2021-06-10 12:41

mariusz

marvelous stand of fruits with many colors. I can recognize most of them and we have them here, maybe not all the varieties. I usually never buy something I don't know the price even if I can pay. in sao paulo airport some small fast food can be terribly expensive. I remember once I was hungry and I ate only a "pão de queijo" and the waiter asked me: but you won't only this ? and I ate that only because I was hungry, it was very expensive, in my town I would get to buy the same thing for 3 times a lower price..

take care

jorge

kasianowak (17676) 2021-06-11 4:57

Podejrzewam, ze koszt transportu odegral mniejsza role w obliczeniu ceny niz zwykle naciaganie turystow, ktorego nie cierbie i z ktorym sie ciagle spotykam. Przoduja w tym taksowkarze, o takich wysokich cenach owocow nie slyszalam natomiast nigdy. No coz, cale zycie sie uczymy i bardzo mi sie ta informacja przyda, jak wreszcie pojade na Madere.
Zdjecie natomiast przecudne, te owoce sa ulozone jakby z mysla o kompozycji do fotografii. Zestawienie kolorow i ksztaltow przyciaga wzrok. Wielu z nich nie znam, o tym ananaso-bananie nigdy nawet nie slyszalam.
Zycze milego weekendu.
Kasia
PS. Ja korzystam zwykle z tej strony internetowej:
https://www.gov.pl/web/koronawirus/informacje-dla-podrozujacych
Patrz: Zasady Obowiazujace od 30 marca 2021, a potem: dla przybywajacych spoza strefy Schengen.
Te laboratoria na lotniskach sa juz chyba wszedzie, wyrosly jak grzyby po deszczu zaraz po 30 marca (ja lecialam 1 kwietnia i juz bylo).

PaulVDV (62846) 2021-06-11 15:21

Hello Mariusz,
Beautiful and colourful presentation of the different fruits.
I think I remember the Mercado dos Lavradores.
Was it there that there were also many stalls of all kinds of dried fruit? I was seriously ripped off there :)
Best regards, Paul

mcmtanyel (68421) 2021-07-05 21:29

Hello Mariusz,
I am sorry you were cheated by artificially sweetened fruit. The photo is lovely, though. I can see how one can be tempted to try all these fruits.
Regards,
MT