I bought a bunch of lychees a few days ago.
Just finished them when my dearest friend J called to say she was coming to see me to give me something. Always happy to see her.
She arrived with a kilo of lychees. It turns out the local harvest has been phenomenal - in fact too much so. There is a glut of the things and price has dropped to virtually zero leaving the farmers with problems.
To offer assistance to the farmers, the local government has stepped in and bought up tons of them and distributed them to their staff. J works for the local government in the department that promotes local foods, so she has first call!
She and her husband and son are working their way through them and she decided to unload some on me. Tonight, she brought her son with her. I offered him one and he looked sick and declined! I think he's been eating them non-stop for days!
Over the years I've seen the government do the same over gluts of bananas and oranges.
