[kaybe]

The fruit I and friends picked and packed during a gap year in New Zealand for minimum wage (at that time around 6€) are sold here in Europe for 2€/kg. (And the place basically gave us a free place to live and free access to the fields for food.) It might not have been the most amazing job ever, but it was ok enough.

For a small and non-poor economy like New Zealand and Australia I find it a good compromise to take the adventure-minded youths of rich countries and have them work a few months of their lives, since there is no shortage of those and less people do the job all their lives or try to raise a family on it.

It's also interesting to see there was labour travel of poorer countries such as Chile and China. A few people came over, basically to have an opportunity to see the world (most surplus of earning was eaten by higher costs and travel), and they didn't even know English. I still admire them.

TL;DR: If you buy New Zealand fruit - most has been picked by some priviledged kid from a rich country (for fun and acceptable pay).

[pcrh]

To support your point, the Netherlands is the world's second largest exporter of agricultural produce [1], and, to draw a direct parallel with the article under discussion, the worlds largest exporter of tomatoes [2].

There is no way that agricultural workers in the Netherlands are treated as badly as those described in the OP.

[1] http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/expat-page/news/dutc...

[2] http://www.hollandtrade.com/media/news/?bstnum=5351