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In the News

Price mechanism in action - tobacco farmers chasing a sweeter crop

Graham Watson

2nd January 2020

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This BBC article looks how Greek tobacco farmers have switched to the production of stevia, a zero calorie, sugar substitute (natural sweetener).

It's a lovely example of how markets allocate scarce resources in response to changing patterns of consumer demand. Stevia powder on the supermarket shelves costs around €120 per kilo compared with a kilo of sugar for €0.83 euros. The global market of Stevia was estimated to have a value of $490 million in 2017, and is forecasted to reach to about $771 million by 2022.

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Graham Watson

Graham Watson has taught Economics for over twenty years. He contributes to Tutor2U, reads voraciously and is interested in all aspects of Teaching and Learning.

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