From the purest form of maple syrup, extracted drop by drop from trees in New York, to the finest polished-rice sake, crafted by Japan's youngest female sake brewmaster, we uncovered the stories behind some of the world's most expensive foods.
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00:00:00 From the purest form of maple syrup extracted drop by drop from trees in New York
00:00:06 to the finest polished rice sake crafted by Japan's youngest female sake brewmaster,
00:00:13 we uncovered the stories behind some of the world's most expensive foods.
00:00:18 Our first stop is Nigeria, where stockfish became a staple in local cuisine.
00:00:27 Although it's processed miles away in the freezing winds of Norway.
00:00:31 Almost everyone at this market in Lagos, Nigeria is here to buy stockfish.
00:00:42 A coveted source of protein, it sells for $65 per kilogram,
00:00:47 seven times as much as other popular fish like croaker.
00:00:52 But no one in Nigeria can actually produce this unique dried cod.
00:00:57 The fish comes from thousands of miles away in Norway,
00:01:02 where entire operations are dedicated to supplying the stockfish demand in Nigeria.
00:01:07 It's 99.9% for Nigeria.
00:01:13 A full drying rack like this is worth over $500,000.
00:01:21 But because the supply from Norway is volatile, prices fluctuate
00:01:25 and sellers here in Nigeria have no control over how much fish gets here.
00:01:30 So how did stockfish first connect these two economies?
00:01:35 And why is it so expensive?
00:01:37 We add our stockfish.
00:01:41 The stockfish is very important to Nigerian cuisine
00:01:47 because of the texture and flavor it gives to the dish,
00:01:51 especially when you want to have that local smell, local aroma to your food.
00:01:57 This is the fishing village of Henningsvard in Lofoten, Norway.
00:02:08 It's the ideal location for drying stockfish.
00:02:11 Cod migrates here at the start of the winter.
00:02:16 After it's caught, the fish is graded by size and tied to be hung on racks,
00:02:22 heads and bodies separately.
00:02:24 The weather here is cold, dry and reaches -10 to -15 degrees Celsius with wind chill.
00:02:33 It's so cold that there are no insects that could eat the fish,
00:02:39 but not cold enough to freeze the fish.
00:02:43 And it dries the fish so much that after a few weeks,
00:02:47 not even birds are interested in it anymore.
00:02:50 These racks have the capacity for as much as 4,000 metric tons of stockfish.
00:02:57 It's a way of conservation. You know the yield is 23%,
00:03:02 so that means that if you take out all the water,
00:03:06 it's a way of preserving the proteins.
00:03:10 Exposed in the freezing wind,
00:03:12 it takes three months for cod to fully dry and become stockfish.
00:03:17 Once that happens, stockfish can be stored for up to three years,
00:03:22 making it an extremely valuable resource.
00:03:25 This is a longer method than using salt or artificial dryers,
00:03:30 which can dry cod in a week, but the long wait pays off.
00:03:36 Companies like Nora's buy fresh cod for 52 kroner,
00:03:40 a little less than $5 per kilogram from fishers.
00:03:44 Once dried, its bulk price is around 150 kroner per kilogram.
00:03:50 In Nigeria, it won't be sold in kilograms, but in 30-kilogram bags.
00:03:56 This heads, after two months approximately,
00:04:03 we can take it indoor after drying it,
00:04:06 and we press it into 30-kilogram jute bags
00:04:11 and ship it in 40-feet containers, and it all goes to Nigeria.
00:04:17 Up until 60 years ago,
00:04:22 the word "stockfish" meant little to nothing in Nigeria.
00:04:26 But after the Nigerian Civil War killed more than a million people,
00:04:32 mostly of starvation in the late '60s, everything changed.
00:04:36 Among the emergency supplies other countries sent to Nigeria
00:04:40 to combat the famine, Norway sent stockfish.
00:04:44 While Norwegians still eat it in restaurants now,
00:04:49 almost 100% of the stockfish produced in Norway is headed to Nigeria,
00:04:54 especially for home cooking.
00:04:59 In 2015, Nigeria imported $8.94 million worth of stockfish from Norway.
00:05:06 You know, this is gold.
00:05:11 From Norway.
00:05:12 We don't have a challenge selling stockfish when we import it.
00:05:17 And we sell as much as we bring.
00:05:19 Nanso is a stockfish dealer.
00:05:22 He's spent 20 years in the business,
00:05:25 going from retailing to dealing directly with imports.
00:05:29 He sells his stockfish at the Otter Whitesand Market in Lagos, Nigeria.
00:05:35 Stockfish comes in this very special...
00:05:37 So, there is the head aspect of it, which is also into different types.
00:05:43 There's one that comes with jaw, and one that comes without jaw.
00:05:46 There's also a type of different heads.
00:05:48 So, the same way it is different, the prices are different.
00:05:53 So, in two types of meats, there are the ones without skin and the ones with skin.
00:06:00 Then, aside from that one, there's also the body, the long one.
00:06:04 That one also is more expensive.
00:06:07 And even in that body, there are four different types.
00:06:10 The hot and humid climate makes it impossible for stockfish to be dried here.
00:06:16 So, importing it is the only option.
00:06:19 The stockfish takes six weeks to get to Nanso from Norway.
00:06:28 A pack of 40 here is above $500 and above $300,000.
00:06:36 Then, the main body, the long one, is up to $800,000 to $900,000 here,
00:06:43 which is more close to $1,000 and above.
00:06:46 But those prices will not be the same tomorrow.
00:06:50 Prices fluctuate depending on the season.
00:06:55 And because it's a more convenient trade currency
00:06:57 than Norwegian kroner, prices are set in US dollars.
00:07:01 They depend on the naira-to-dollar exchange rate of the day.
00:07:06 And even then, there are two different exchange rates,
00:07:09 the official one, set by the Central Bank of Nigeria,
00:07:13 and the black market rate.
00:07:16 Black market rates, although unofficial,
00:07:18 often give a better picture of the real market conditions.
00:07:24 Most of us end up going for black market
00:07:26 because it can be in the queue for dollars for months.
00:07:31 In Nigeria, these two exchange rates are very different.
00:07:36 Which one you pick to sell your stockfish
00:07:38 can make or break a business like Nanso's.
00:07:41 That's a major challenge in every business in this country.
00:07:45 The distribution and access to gold,
00:07:49 the difference between gold market rates and black market is over 100.
00:07:53 That's a lot of money.
00:07:54 So it makes the business difficult.
00:07:56 It also makes it expensive for consumers.
00:08:00 So it's a very big challenge.
00:08:02 But for now, I don't have much option.
00:08:05 I have to continue my business.
00:08:08 In 2021, to encourage local fish farming,
00:08:14 the Nigerian government added stockfish to a list of over 40 items
00:08:19 that importers have to buy with actual US dollars,
00:08:23 not Naira converted into the same amount.
00:08:27 For Nanso, this made trading stockfish even more challenging.
00:08:32 15 years ago,
00:08:35 a container of stockfish could be around seven, eight million Naira.
00:08:39 But today, a container of stockfish
00:08:42 would worth between $75,000 to $80,000.
00:08:46 In current black market swings,
00:08:48 it's about $17 million to $15 million.
00:08:51 The challenge is assessing for us through central bank,
00:08:55 not my rents.
00:08:56 A lot of people have left the business.
00:08:59 The rise in energy costs
00:09:01 has also made the operations in Norway more expensive to run.
00:09:05 And that also reflects on the final price at the market here.
00:09:10 The more the people go, the more they can afford.
00:09:14 So we're now...
00:09:16 There have been methods that instead of allowing it to be there to spoil,
00:09:21 we're now slashing.
00:09:22 So when you move around the market,
00:09:24 you'll see people slashing the stockfish to a smaller size
00:09:28 that people can afford.
00:09:29 I really can't place a time frame
00:09:34 to how long I've been cooking stockfish.
00:09:39 I grew up knowing stockfish.
00:09:42 I learned to use stockfish also in cooking the local dishes,
00:09:47 the local delicacies, especially our soup and stews.
00:09:51 Here is our seafood okra.
00:09:58 In all its beauty.
00:10:01 How lovely it looks.
00:10:06 First of all, you feed with the eyes.
00:10:08 The taste of the seafood is so good.
00:10:10 It's so good.
00:10:11 It's so good.
00:10:12 It's so good.
00:10:13 It's so good.
00:10:14 It's so good.
00:10:15 It's so good.
00:10:17 It's so good.
00:10:18 It's so good.
00:10:19 It's so good.
00:10:20 It's so good.
00:10:21 It's so good.
00:10:22 It's so good.
00:10:23 It's so good.
00:10:24 It's so good.
00:10:25 It's so good.
00:10:26 It's so good.
00:10:27 It's so good.
00:10:28 It's so good.
00:10:30 It's so good.
00:10:31 It's so good.
00:10:32 It's so good.
00:10:33 It's so good.
00:10:34 It's so good.
00:10:35 It's so good.
00:10:36 It's so good.
00:10:37 It's so good.
00:10:38 It's so good.
00:10:39 It's so good.
00:10:40 It's so good.
00:10:41 It's so good.
00:10:42 It's so good.
00:10:44 It's so good.
00:10:45 It's so good.
00:10:46 It's so good.
00:10:47 It's so good.
00:10:48 It's so good.
00:10:49 It's so good.
00:10:50 It's so good.
00:10:51 It's so good.
00:10:52 It's so good.
00:10:53 It's so good.
00:10:54 It's so good.
00:10:55 It's so good.
00:10:57 It's so good.
00:10:58 It's so good.
00:10:59 It's so good.
00:11:00 It's so good.
00:11:01 It's so good.
00:11:02 It's so good.
00:11:03 It's so good.
00:11:04 It's so good.
00:11:05 It's so good.
00:11:06 This brown paste is the base for the world's most expensive soy sauce.
00:11:13 And it won't be ready to sell for another 20 years.
00:11:18 While some popular soy sauce brands cost less than bottled water,
00:11:22 Kamedishi's 20-year-aged soy sauce can reach £99 for only 55ml.
00:11:31 It's because of this thick soybean mash called goji.
00:11:35 It's the key to this soy sauce's flavour.
00:11:38 Here in the city of Higashikagawa, Japan,
00:11:41 Kamedishi dries and ages goji with a recipe that's more than two centuries old.
00:11:47 We ferment the soy milk and it becomes sour, sweet, savoury,
00:11:54 salty and bitter.
00:11:55 These five things balance out the flavour.
00:12:00 So what makes this method worth preserving?
00:12:05 And why is Kamedishi's soy sauce so expensive?
00:12:31 The complexity of this soy sauce is achieved by fermenting it for days
00:12:36 and ageing it for years.
00:12:38 This traditional recipe allows the company to create flavours
00:12:44 that aren't possible in mass-produced soy sauces.
00:12:47 When I first started working at this company, I was really shocked.
00:12:58 Normally, soy sauce is a mixture of spicy and salty flavours.
00:13:07 But this one has a sour taste to it.
00:13:14 High-quality soy sauce starts with its most basic ingredient, soybeans.
00:13:21 This never-ending cloud streams from the machine,
00:13:25 steaming soybeans inside.
00:13:27 It's a seemingly simple first step that can make or break the entire product.
00:13:53 If you steam the soybeans in a room with cold air,
00:13:59 the beans will be steamed and the soy sauce will taste different.
00:14:05 After 18 hours soaking and steaming, the beans should be soft and ready.
00:14:11 I think it's ready.
00:14:14 It's cooked all the way through.
00:14:17 I'm hoping it'll be well-cooked.
00:14:19 To turn steamed soybeans into the one-of-a-kind goji,
00:14:28 the beans have to be combined with barley and mould spores.
00:14:33 First, Teppei prepares the barley in a dry room,
00:14:37 dusted with finely ground wheat.
00:14:40 Unlike other soy sauce breweries,
00:14:49 Kamebishi grinds it down to fine powder.
00:14:53 Teppei mixes goji mould spores into the ground barley.
00:15:09 Then, the steamed soybeans are hand-tossed with the barley and goji powder.
00:15:15 The mould produces enzymes that break down the proteins and starches
00:15:20 in the beans and barley into amino acids and sugars.
00:15:24 It's this natural fermentation process
00:15:27 that gives artisanal Japanese soy sauce its dark color and distinct flavor.
00:15:35 I was able to prove that even if you try it once,
00:15:41 it won't taste the same.
00:15:44 Kaori Okada is the current owner of Kamebishi.
00:15:48 She's the 18th generation of her family to run this business.
00:15:53 Kamebishi is one of the few breweries in the world
00:15:56 that still uses the traditional mushiro goji method.
00:16:00 We line the mushiro with the goji and ferment it for three days.
00:16:07 Workers monitor the temperature of the goji every hour during that time.
00:16:12 You can't sleep tonight?
00:16:14 I'm done with work tomorrow morning.
00:16:29 On the first day, Deppei heats the room to raise the goji's temperature.
00:16:35 The goal in this step is to heat the goji to stimulate fermentation.
00:16:52 By day two, the fermentation should be so active
00:16:55 that the goji generates its own heat.
00:16:59 Even without the stove, the temperature of the goji is around 31°C.
00:17:05 As it grows, the goji gets so big,
00:17:09 it needs to be shaken off the mats, dumped to the floor,
00:17:12 and remixed to make sure the beans don't stick to each other.
00:17:17 The stronger the fermentation, the stronger the dissolution,
00:17:20 which makes it a good soy sauce.
00:17:28 The goji ages in these barrels, where it will transform completely.
00:17:34 Moromi is the name of the paste-like mixture
00:17:41 that will age into the finished soy sauce.
00:17:44 It's a mixture of goji, salt, and water.
00:17:49 Adding salt isn't just for flavor.
00:17:52 Salt protects the goji from microorganisms and bacteria
00:17:56 while it ages in cedarwood barrels.
00:17:59 But as it ages, they leave it alone,
00:18:15 except for occasional stirring during the hotter months.
00:18:19 During the summer, the surface of the goji is exposed to the sun,
00:18:26 which is not good for the soy sauce.
00:18:31 So we sometimes stir it three or four times a week.
00:18:36 This is the goji that we just fermented last week.
00:18:47 As you can see, the surface is golden,
00:18:54 or yellowish.
00:18:56 As it ages, it turns into a different color.
00:19:00 Does it sink when you jump in?
00:19:08 It sinks slowly.
00:19:11 Very slowly.
00:19:15 The enzymes in the goji
00:19:18 break down the protein in the soy sauce,
00:19:22 which makes it taste better.
00:19:28 Kamebishi ages all of its soy sauces.
00:19:34 The longer they age, the more complex the flavors,
00:19:37 and the more expensive the final product.
00:19:41 We age short-lived soy sauces for two years,
00:19:44 and long-lived ones for 20 years.
00:19:49 Kamebishi even has plans for a 50-year-aged soy sauce,
00:19:53 which won't be ready until around 2032.
00:19:57 This is the oldest molum.
00:20:02 It's been around for 41 years.
00:20:07 It's similar to balsamic vinegar,
00:20:13 but the longer it ages, the more sour it becomes.
00:20:18 But before the sauce can be bottled and sold,
00:20:21 it first must be pressed.
00:20:23 Mature molum aged under 10 years
00:20:29 is spread out on cloth and stacked into layers.
00:20:33 This process is called "nodoki."
00:20:39 Then a machine squeezes the soy sauce into a bucket below.
00:20:45 I think 800 liters of soy sauce is enough for today.
00:20:50 But anything aged over 10 years
00:20:55 is too dry to press this way.
00:20:58 It takes at least a month to make one.
00:21:04 We make a hole in the bottle,
00:21:11 and put a gauze in it.
00:21:13 Then we put a milk bottle under it.
00:21:17 Then we press it down and fill it with the sauce.
00:21:23 The bottle is filled with the sauce,
00:21:29 and we press it down from the gauze.
00:21:32 The finished sauce is then heated up to stop the fermentation
00:21:36 and to pasteurize it for bottling.
00:21:39 Unfortunately, soy sauce is no longer sold.
00:21:46 The consumption is very low.
00:21:49 So when she took over from her sister in 2001,
00:21:53 she already started innovating to bolster the historic company.
00:21:57 They even make pizza.
00:22:06 The company's roots are baked into its name.
00:22:20 The turtle and the fish are very popular items.
00:22:25 I think the Okada family's ancestors
00:22:29 loved turtles.
00:22:31 The fourth generation was a samurai.
00:22:36 The fifth generation started the soy sauce industry in 1753.
00:22:42 That's what I read in the document.
00:22:45 It was a very tough job,
00:22:51 almost like a war in Japan.
00:22:54 It's very difficult for young people to continue.
00:22:58 They don't think about running a business
00:23:04 as a family.
00:23:07 She felt similarly about her own foray into the business.
00:23:12 She told her husband, who was 16, that she didn't have confidence.
00:23:19 She told him to close the business.
00:23:24 But she managed to do her best.
00:23:28 After her sister passed away, she started to study,
00:23:34 and she got many degrees.
00:23:41 Inside this century-old tree hides pure grade A maple syrup,
00:23:47 made exclusively from this sap with no added sugar.
00:23:51 It's the purest form of maple syrup you can get,
00:23:54 but it's extremely rare and time-consuming to make.
00:23:59 To retrieve this liquid gold,
00:24:02 Jeffrey needs to individually tap thousands of trees by hand
00:24:07 and extract their sap slowly, drop by drop.
00:24:11 It could take hours or even days for the sap to reach its final destination,
00:24:17 and after that, about 10 hours to get one single gallon of syrup.
00:24:22 Farms like this one in New York State's Hudson Valley
00:24:26 then sell that gallon for over $200.
00:24:30 That's almost 29 times more expensive than popular imitation syrup,
00:24:34 which sells for $7.
00:24:37 Despite the price, grade A maple syrup is incredibly sought after,
00:24:41 so much so that $18 million of it was once stolen
00:24:45 in one of the largest heists in Canadian history.
00:24:49 But why is grade A maple syrup worth so much,
00:24:53 and why is it so expensive?
00:24:55 I love very dark maple syrup.
00:25:04 It's got these beautiful notes of toffee and caramel.
00:25:08 It's a little buttery, and it's got that really strong maple flavor,
00:25:12 which I really like.
00:25:14 I love it, obviously, on pancakes, on waffles,
00:25:16 but it's really great, too, to slather on some ribs, too,
00:25:20 so adding that sweetness, that maple flavor.
00:25:23 The basics of making maple syrup are all the same.
00:25:26 You boil sap, but from tree to jug of syrup,
00:25:30 there's a lot of different variables in that process
00:25:33 that affect the taste as well.
00:25:35 Jeffrey and his wife, Ashley Ruprecht,
00:25:37 have been making syrup for almost a decade.
00:25:40 They produce limited batches of syrup
00:25:42 that have been tapped, wood-fired, and bottled
00:25:45 right here on their 50-plus-acre farm in the Hudson Valley.
00:25:50 Outside of Vermont, New York has the most tappable maple trees in the US.
00:25:55 Currently, we have around 1,200 trees,
00:25:59 so we're not a huge farm.
00:26:01 It's still manageable for my husband and I.
00:26:03 Though many may associate it with autumn,
00:26:10 maple syrup is actually a product of spring.
00:26:13 During the summer months, the maple tree absorbs energy from the sun
00:26:17 as well as water and minerals from the soil.
00:26:19 Starch is then created and stored in the roots through the winter.
00:26:24 In spring, as the snow begins to melt,
00:26:26 the starch turns to sugar or sucrose and circulates throughout the tree.
00:26:32 And it's the ideal time for Jeffrey to tap.
00:26:36 While most of the trees are sugar maples,
00:26:38 they also pull sap from other types.
00:26:41 Really, sugar maples are the predominant species that are tapped.
00:26:44 Just 'cause the sugar content in the sap itself is so high,
00:26:47 I would say 25% to 30% red maples we tap,
00:26:51 and then the rest are sugar maples.
00:26:53 To be tapped, a maple tree needs to reach at least 40 years old,
00:26:58 but they can live for up to 400 years.
00:27:01 And if tapped properly,
00:27:02 producers like Jeffrey can reuse the same tree for decades.
00:27:07 There's no harm to the tree.
00:27:08 You want to tap where there's not any major large knots or flaws
00:27:13 or anything above, like good crowns, good diameter of the tree,
00:27:16 healthy tree, no rotten spots and stuff like that.
00:27:19 So this is a really good spot.
00:27:21 And when tapping, it's super important to go as quick as possible,
00:27:24 in and out, make sure all the wood comes out.
00:27:27 And you have a clear tap hole that's nice and round.
00:27:34 You're good to go.
00:27:35 For Jeffrey to collect the sap,
00:27:37 a couple of factors need to be just right.
00:27:40 The sap is ready when the temperature is above freezing during the day
00:27:44 and below freezing at night.
00:27:47 Wind can also affect the flow of the sap.
00:27:50 Today is a really good day.
00:27:52 We had a nice hard freeze last night and it's warm today.
00:27:57 So that pressure in the tree is really pushing sap out.
00:28:02 So it's a really, really good day.
00:28:04 Jeffrey drives a spout one and a half to two and a half inches deep
00:28:08 into a hole five sixteenths of an inch wide.
00:28:11 He then fits every tree with a tube like this one.
00:28:17 In Jeffrey's and Ashley's forest,
00:28:19 lines of tubes transport sap to a sugar house for processing.
00:28:24 In the US, there are three grades of maple syrup,
00:28:30 substandard, processing grade, and the highest quality, grade A.
00:28:35 To be sold as grade A,
00:28:37 it needs to contain no more than 68.9% solids,
00:28:42 have a consistent colour and contain no sediment.
00:28:47 In comparison, cheap commercial table syrup can contain anything
00:28:51 from artificial colourings to harmful chemicals.
00:28:54 So table syrup, that is actually not maple syrup.
00:28:59 It's usually corn syrup or cane syrup,
00:29:02 maybe a little bit of maple flavouring added to it
00:29:05 because it's not from a maple tree at all.
00:29:07 For grade A, the time of year also affects the quality of the syrup.
00:29:13 The earlier in the season it's harvested, the lighter the syrup.
00:29:17 It's all the same process to produce these colours.
00:29:21 It's the sap that changes throughout the season
00:29:23 that actually changes the colour and the taste of the syrup.
00:29:26 Usually we'll start out with a lighter syrup, a golden, an amber,
00:29:31 and you usually end on very dark syrup at the end of the season.
00:29:35 Today, Ashley and Jeffrey will likely harvest grade A very dark.
00:29:40 It's the darkest colour that we produce as well,
00:29:43 which has the strongest maple flavour,
00:29:46 and that is really popular for us here.
00:29:48 On the market, these factors are reflected in the price,
00:29:53 with Jeffrey and Ashley's premium syrups
00:29:55 going for a little over $200 per gallon.
00:29:59 Premium syrups are so valuable that between 2011 and 2012,
00:30:08 6 million gallons worth over 14 million US dollars
00:30:12 were stolen from producers in the Canadian province of Quebec,
00:30:15 the world's largest supplier of maple syrup.
00:30:18 The heist was so large that it affected the global supply.
00:30:23 It remains to this day the most valuable heist in Canadian history,
00:30:28 known as the Great Maple Syrup Heist.
00:30:30 In the US, table syrup is still the first choice,
00:30:35 with 75% of consumers preferring it over pure maple syrup.
00:30:40 But here in the Hudson Valley,
00:30:42 premium syrup like Jeffrey and Ashley's has no equals.
00:30:46 I grew up in the fifth generation of restaurateurs in the Hudson Valley.
00:30:53 There is more of an increase in the demand for the maple syrup.
00:30:57 I find that it's drawing an influx of people
00:30:59 and an attention to the Hudson Valley.
00:31:02 I think that the usage of both the red maple and the sugar maple trees
00:31:06 does have a little bit more of a well-rounded flavour to it.
00:31:10 I typically use the dark maple syrup, being kind of a middle of the road.
00:31:14 It has an excellent flavour profile
00:31:16 that does pair well with sweet dishes, savoury dishes.
00:31:19 You just simply can't get that same flavour profile or balance
00:31:23 from honey or any other type of sweeteners.
00:31:25 The maple, almost that oaky type of flavour,
00:31:28 does carry through with it and balances very well.
00:31:32 Grade A, I find, suits very well for multiple applications.
00:31:38 Back at the farm, Jeffrey and Ashley get ready
00:31:41 to begin evaporating and filtering the freshly drawn sap.
00:31:45 To get the sap up the evaporator in the sugar house,
00:31:49 it first needs to reach this building, the sap house.
00:31:53 With the help of a vacuum,
00:31:57 the network of tubes carries it to a giant stainless steel collection tank.
00:32:01 The first point of entry gets pulled into this big bin
00:32:04 where the sap is stored.
00:32:06 The second point of entry gets pulled into this big bin.
00:32:09 And we have pumps going all the way up to our sugar house up there,
00:32:13 which pushes sap up into there, and that's where we evaporate.
00:32:17 It's pumped up to the sugar house to a larger holding tank.
00:32:22 This is where filtration and evaporation begin.
00:32:25 Ashley and Jeffrey's farm runs on a wood evaporator.
00:32:33 We boil as hot as we can get our firebox.
00:32:36 We're testing it constantly.
00:32:38 You're measuring the bricks of the syrup,
00:32:40 which is basically the viscosity of the syrup,
00:32:43 making sure it gets to the correct density.
00:32:46 When it's pulled from the tree and before reaching the evaporator,
00:32:54 sap contains 98% water and 2% sugar.
00:32:59 By the time it evaporates, it should be ready at 33% water and 67% sugar.
00:33:06 Precision is key here.
00:33:09 Jeffrey needs to make sure the syrup reaches exactly 68.9% density.
00:33:16 We'll just boil away most of the water content from the sap
00:33:20 until it reaches the perfect maple syrup consistency.
00:33:24 Because once you evaporate too much of the water content out of the sap,
00:33:29 it goes from syrup to, like, a candy to a sugar.
00:33:34 Many farms today, especially larger ones,
00:33:37 tend to use oil-powered evaporators.
00:33:40 Neither method affects the taste of the syrup,
00:33:43 but the wooden evaporator is more labor-intensive,
00:33:46 which is another factor that drives up the price.
00:33:48 We do have a lot of storms that come through,
00:33:50 so a lot of the trees that do fall,
00:33:52 we use the firebox to evaporate.
00:33:55 From sap to finished syrup,
00:33:58 Jeffrey and Ashley have to be mindful of the entire process.
00:34:02 Trees can fall on your main line.
00:34:05 You can have a pretty catastrophic day if that happens.
00:34:08 All of your syrup is just pouring out of your main line.
00:34:11 You definitely have to be paying attention
00:34:12 unless you have a lot of automated systems going,
00:34:14 and even then, sometimes things happen.
00:34:16 But there is one thing that can't be controlled.
00:34:22 The weather.
00:34:23 Recently, warming temperatures and changes in freeze-and-thaw cycles
00:34:29 have affected maple trees and syrup production
00:34:32 and the quality of Ashley and Jeffrey's products.
00:34:35 We've seen a change even in just these few years.
00:34:37 Long periods of freezing in the middle of the season
00:34:41 are really hard because you could have two weeks
00:34:44 where it's a really hard freeze and sap is not flowing,
00:34:48 and then a few weeks later, it's really warm
00:34:51 and the trees just stop producing sap.
00:34:53 So the seasons have become shorter,
00:34:55 but we're also seeing every year we're tapping a little earlier
00:35:00 and seeing sap flows a little earlier too,
00:35:02 so the season might be moving a little earlier as well
00:35:07 and ending earlier too.
00:35:08 Despite the challenges,
00:35:10 maple syrup farms like Ashley and Jeffrey's in New York continue to thrive.
00:35:15 We're a great support system for each other
00:35:18 and it's always nice to walk out your back door
00:35:22 and be in your sugar woods and business.
00:35:26 To make sake, you need a lot of rice.
00:35:31 Brewers polish rice into pristine, pearl-like grains
00:35:36 and combine it with koji mold to craft the perfect flavor.
00:35:41 You can buy a bottle of sake for less than $10,
00:35:45 but the most expensive version of the highest grade,
00:35:47 called Junmai Dai Ginjo, can cost almost $10,000.
00:35:52 Sake requires just four ingredients,
00:35:55 but without careful attention,
00:35:57 the brew can be ruined at any stage.
00:36:00 At Nizawa Brewery, Nanami Watanabe observes the entire process.
00:36:06 She's one of the youngest brewmasters in Japan.
00:36:10 I was a single student,
00:36:13 so I wasn't at the age to drink when I got a job.
00:36:18 Despite her age, her sake has already won several awards.
00:36:24 Some people may find it stressful to find out that the answer is never right,
00:36:31 but I find it interesting that there's no goal in being delicious.
00:36:36 We spent a day with Nanami to discover how she brews sake
00:36:40 and to learn about what makes Junmai Dai Ginjo so expensive.
00:36:45 It's a quiet morning in the mountain town of Kawasaki
00:36:52 in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture.
00:36:54 But inside the brewery, the hustle has already begun.
00:37:00 (MACHINE WHIRRING)
00:37:02 (MACHINE WHIRRING)
00:37:04 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
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00:37:36 (LAUGHTER)
00:37:39 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:37:42 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:37:48 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:37:50 Sake is categorised by its ingredients
00:38:07 and the degree of rice polishing,
00:38:09 also referred to as the rice polishing ratio.
00:38:12 To be considered Junmai Dai Ginjo,
00:38:15 at least 50% of the grain must be removed through polishing.
00:38:19 The more polished the rice, the longer the sake takes to make
00:38:23 and the more expensive the final product.
00:38:26 The brewery uses around 12 metric tonnes of unpolished rice per week.
00:38:31 To polish rice, brewers run it through mills
00:38:36 that remove the sides of the grain, which contain proteins and fats.
00:38:40 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:38:43 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:38:45 Compared to the umami flavour of sake made from less polished rice,
00:39:05 more polishing generally means a cleaner taste
00:39:08 and a more expensive price point.
00:39:12 But before it can be fermented, it has to be washed and steamed.
00:39:17 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
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00:39:36 Workers move quickly because every moment counts when washing rice.
00:39:53 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:39:56 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:39:58 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:40:08 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:40:10 Now it's time to steam the rice that workers washed yesterday.
00:40:32 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:40:36 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:40:38 Steaming takes around 40 to 45 minutes,
00:40:44 and just like washing, it requires close attention.
00:40:48 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:41:04 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:41:06 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:41:17 For Iwao, promoting Nanami to brewmaster at a young age
00:41:31 wasn't much of a risk.
00:41:33 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:41:35 Nanami has been working at this brewery for seven years.
00:41:57 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:42:00 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:42:02 It takes roughly two kilos of rice to make a 1.8-litre bottle of sake.
00:42:20 Many different types of rice can be used,
00:42:22 which affect the taste and the price.
00:42:25 Niizawa Brewery sources most of its rice locally.
00:42:30 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:42:32 While ordinary Junmai Dai Ginjo sake uses rice polished to at least 50%,
00:42:52 Niizawa's most expensive sake is polished to less than 1%.
00:42:58 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:43:00 Polishing rice to 50% takes around three days,
00:43:17 but to get to 1%, it takes over 200 days.
00:43:22 The process requires more rice and slower, more careful polishing.
00:43:27 Niizawa makes around 1,000 bottles of this type of sake each year,
00:43:32 and Iwao says they always sell out.
00:43:36 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:43:38 But polishing is just the beginning.
00:43:50 Once the rice is steamed, it's time to add the most important ingredient,
00:43:56 koji mould spores.
00:43:58 Koji is a type of mould that grows on steamed rice.
00:44:03 As the spores grow, they convert the starches in the rice into sugars.
00:44:08 But workers have to move quickly
00:44:12 to maintain the correct temperature and humidity.
00:44:25 They feel for warm and cold areas of the rice
00:44:28 and move clumps around to keep the temperature even.
00:44:32 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
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00:45:33 Once the koji is ready,
00:45:35 Nanami combines everything in large fermentation tanks.
00:45:39 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:45:41 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:46:10 Koji turns starches into sugars,
00:46:13 and the yeast converts those sugars into alcohol.
00:46:17 This process is called multiple parallel fermentation.
00:46:22 It's what makes sake unique.
00:46:25 It's also what makes brewing it so challenging.
00:46:28 Nanami monitors this liquid, called mash,
00:46:31 every day for a month.
00:46:34 There's a lot of anticipation waiting to taste the sake.
00:46:39 She takes samples and uses sensors to track the fermentation.
00:46:44 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:46:47 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:47:16 After it ferments, the mash is pressed and bottled as sake.
00:47:21 But no matter the price of the bottle,
00:47:24 Nanami ensures every sip is delicious.
00:47:28 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:47:30 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:47:32 For Nanami, training her palate is just as important
00:47:52 as honing her brewing skills.
00:47:55 After work, she often tastes sake from other breweries.
00:48:00 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:48:23 Nanami ordered nine kinds of sake,
00:48:26 but she doesn't know which is which.
00:48:29 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:48:32 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
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00:49:13 Despite sake's legacy in Japan,
00:49:15 Nanami says it isn't always a drink of choice for people her age.
00:49:19 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
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00:49:24 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:49:52 Tasting sake in a restaurant while eating
00:49:54 allows Nanami to experience it the same way a customer would.
00:49:58 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:50:20 Now it's time to check how many she got right.
00:50:23 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
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00:51:10 Niizawa Brewery has been around for 150 years.
00:51:15 Iwao Niizawa is the fifth generation to run it.
00:51:19 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:51:21 At the age of 25, Iwao became a brewmaster.
00:51:31 He dedicated himself to improving the quality of the sake
00:51:34 and the brewery's sales.
00:51:37 But in 2011, disaster struck
00:51:40 a magnitude 9 earthquake and the resulting tsunami
00:51:44 devastated the northeastern coast of Japan.
00:51:47 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
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00:52:33 Since rebuilding, Niizawa has won numerous awards for its sake,
00:52:38 and Iwao has passed the role of brewmaster to Nanami.
00:52:42 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:52:44 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:52:55 (SPEAKING JAPANESE)
00:52:57 This is a golden kiwi,
00:53:13 a unique strain of kiwi fruit developed through crossbreeding
00:53:18 to be sweeter and softer than a normal green kiwi.
00:53:23 Green's old school.
00:53:25 Green is big, brown, very different sorts of shapes.
00:53:30 Gold just looks slicker.
00:53:32 It's a different, more subtle palette, sweeter,
00:53:35 and it's a more consistent piece of fruit.
00:53:37 Even though they're smaller,
00:53:39 golden kiwis cost almost twice as much as green kiwis.
00:53:43 In fact, they're so valuable
00:53:45 that some sprouts have been smuggled out of New Zealand
00:53:48 and sold in lots for $60,000 New Zealand dollars.
00:53:52 That's because this specific kiwi can't be grown without permission
00:53:56 from its copyright holder, Zespri.
00:53:59 Unless you want to be sued and ordered to pay $14 million,
00:54:03 like one international smuggler was,
00:54:05 growing golden kiwis is so lucrative
00:54:07 that it's caused a feud between New Zealand and China,
00:54:10 where the fruit is native.
00:54:12 But how do you copyright a fruit?
00:54:15 And what exactly makes these kiwis so expensive?
00:54:21 It's a very easy fruit to eat.
00:54:23 It's very soft, you know, without being squashy or squishy.
00:54:27 Yeah, it's got the hints of melon with it, with the kiwi fruit.
00:54:31 Look, it's a beautiful-tasting fruit. It really is.
00:54:35 While green kiwis have a thick, hairy skin
00:54:38 that provides a protective layer,
00:54:40 golden kiwis are completely hairless and much more easily damaged.
00:54:45 Here at Wairau Orchard,
00:54:47 located in Kerikeri in the heart of Northland, New Zealand,
00:54:51 golden kiwis are carefully harvested with gloved hands.
00:54:55 This drives up labour costs.
00:54:58 It's a very easy fruit to pick,
00:55:00 but you must take a lot of care not to damage it.
00:55:03 We have teams of pickers that have picking bags
00:55:07 and wear gloves on their hands
00:55:10 so that they don't damage the fruit with their fingernails.
00:55:13 And it's all done by hand, by hand.
00:55:16 It's all done by hand, by snapping the fruit off and putting it into a bag,
00:55:20 and then the bags are emptied into bins.
00:55:23 A team of 15 pickers, when they're doing well,
00:55:26 they would be filling a bin roughly every three to four minutes.
00:55:30 But before Peter and his team are even allowed to harvest,
00:55:34 a sample from the orchard must meet certain criteria.
00:55:42 Taste is one, number of seeds, or the colour of the seeds,
00:55:46 the blackness of the seeds.
00:55:48 You can't just have one or two or three out of the five pass,
00:55:52 you must pass on all of them.
00:55:54 This is because this particular variety of golden kiwi, called sun gold,
00:55:59 is controlled by Zespri,
00:56:01 a cooperative of kiwi fruit growers in New Zealand.
00:56:09 Zespri created sun gold by crossbreeding different yellow kiwis.
00:56:14 Within two years, it was a delicious, large, golden globe,
00:56:18 and it was just the perfect piece of fruit.
00:56:21 And it was this perfected strain
00:56:23 that helped New Zealand rebuild its kiwi industry.
00:56:27 In 2010, disease nearly wiped out most of the country's kiwi orchards,
00:56:32 causing $900 million worth of damage.
00:56:35 But one newly developed kiwi strain resisted infection,
00:56:39 Zespri's sun gold.
00:56:41 Sun gold quickly became popular for its consistently sweet taste,
00:56:46 and has proved more profitable than its green counterpart.
00:56:50 Fast forward to today, and this perfected strain
00:56:53 makes up about 67%, or $1.9 billion,
00:56:58 of New Zealand's kiwi export value.
00:57:01 But not just anyone can grow these kiwis.
00:57:04 Zespri only releases a certain number of licenses every year,
00:57:08 and growers bid on them.
00:57:10 In 2022, the median price for a sun gold license
00:57:14 hit $801,000 per hectare.
00:57:17 We have IP protections around who's able to grow it
00:57:20 and who shouldn't be growing it.
00:57:22 And gold kiwi fruit is a handcrafted product.
00:57:26 Yeah, we grow it in nature, but so many hours go into it.
00:57:30 It's touched so much, and whether it be fertilisation, pruning,
00:57:34 tying down the pruning wood, thinning flowers,
00:57:40 it just needs so much attention.
00:57:43 But golden kiwis weren't always this perfect.
00:57:46 When they first hit New Zealand's produce market 10 years ago,
00:57:50 the fruits looked and tasted a lot different.
00:57:53 That fruit was disgusting.
00:57:55 They were these small, hard bullets.
00:57:58 It was right at the start of when we started growing it on scale as a country.
00:58:03 And like all new bits of fruit, you need to figure out how to grow it.
00:58:07 Today, it can take five years
00:58:09 before a new sun gold kiwi orchard is ready for harvest.
00:58:13 Joshua Murphy is in charge of planting golden kiwis
00:58:17 here at Wirarua Orchard,
00:58:19 one of the largest commercial orchards in the region.
00:58:24 The orchard contains about 72 hectares of gold kiwis.
00:58:29 It's on Joshua to strategically cultivate vines
00:58:32 that will bear high-quality fruit for the next 30 to 50 years.
00:58:37 It's not just a kind of, "We chuck the plants in the ground
00:58:40 and it grows a million fruit that big."
00:58:43 No, there's actually a lot of selection.
00:58:45 If we over-crop it too much,
00:58:47 we'll get a bunch of fruit like that that aren't going to sell.
00:58:50 We have to select how many canes we put into the canopy in the winter pruning.
00:58:55 Starting in June, during New Zealand's wintertime,
00:58:58 Joshua begins pruning the vines and training its canes, or branches,
00:59:02 to grow on a trellis and eventually form a canopy.
00:59:07 Yeah, so this system that I'm doing here with the poles and the strings,
00:59:12 again, it's based on a science
00:59:14 because these canes will grow quicker and longer and stronger
00:59:19 growing on that direction rather than just letting them flap in the wind.
00:59:24 Training the vines to grow upward
00:59:26 also forces the plants to store more sugar at the top,
00:59:29 resulting in sweeter kiwis.
00:59:32 I think it's quite nice.
00:59:35 My partner, she says it's like a mix between a kiwi fruit and a tamarillo.
00:59:44 Yeah, they're more of a designer fruit, if that makes any sense.
00:59:48 The green ones are quite nice too,
00:59:50 but the gold ones have just got that extra bit in them.
00:59:53 I'll eat a few each season, but I won't...
00:59:57 I don't indulge myself in them too much now.
01:00:00 I make desserts out of them.
01:00:02 A golden kiwi orchard typically needs more hands on deck
01:00:05 because of its large size.
01:00:07 Since golden kiwi vines produce less fruit,
01:00:10 the orchards are usually larger than those for green kiwis.
01:00:14 A typical green kiwi orchard might have 12,000 to 14,000 trees per hectare.
01:00:19 Meanwhile, a golden kiwi orchard needs 16,000 to 18,000 trees per hectare
01:00:25 to produce enough fruit to make it worth it for farmers.
01:00:29 So the work I'm doing now on this plant here
01:00:32 gets done on about 80,000 plants in this orchard.
01:00:35 And this is just the very initial stage of setting up the leaders.
01:00:40 Joshua strategically trims the vines
01:00:43 to produce these perfectly sweet golden kiwis.
01:00:46 Depending on the amount of growth,
01:00:48 it takes him anywhere from five to 20 minutes per plant.
01:00:52 Thinning out the vines by hand allows him to target canes
01:00:56 that have started to produce misshapen fruit.
01:00:59 Doing this also raises labour costs
01:01:02 since all the thinning must be done by an experienced hand.
01:01:06 Most people that are overseas that are buying a kiwi fruit,
01:01:09 they probably think it comes from a tree.
01:01:11 They probably think someone's just planted a tree.
01:01:14 I don't think a lot of people understand how much labour and work
01:01:18 goes into creating the product that they're eating.
01:01:22 After the kiwis are harvested, every kiwi is carefully inspected.
01:01:27 Consumers don't want to go one day in the supermarket
01:01:30 looking for their gold kiwi fruit and find that it's not there anymore,
01:01:34 or that it tastes slightly different, or the quality's not as good.
01:01:38 It's sad because it still tastes just as nice.
01:01:41 But premium fruit needs to look perfect,
01:01:44 and gold kiwi fruit is pretty unforgiving
01:01:46 because it's such a smooth, round piece of fruit.
01:01:48 It looks beautiful. Any mark on it, you can notice it.
01:01:51 Shipping from New Zealand to most countries
01:01:53 is already quite expensive due to the distance.
01:01:56 Not many ships come down here.
01:01:59 There isn't that much going on down in Aotearoa, New Zealand,
01:02:02 that you need a big container ship for,
01:02:04 outside of horticulture and dairy and meat.
01:02:07 Therefore, the cost of shipping is pretty expensive
01:02:10 when it comes to the contribution that costs to the price of a piece of fruit.
01:02:14 Luckily, though, golden kiwis don't expire quickly,
01:02:17 another quality that sets them apart from green kiwis.
01:02:20 Zespri says that while a ripe green kiwi lasts up to five days,
01:02:25 a golden kiwi can last up to seven.
01:02:28 The grower-owned co-op is the main exporter of New Zealand's kiwi fruits.
01:02:33 Today, the island country controls 30% of the global kiwi supply.
01:02:38 In a way, Zespri's coordinating all those efforts
01:02:41 of New Zealand kiwi fruit growers into a coordinated breeding programme.
01:02:45 It's one of the larger breeding programmes in the world
01:02:48 when it comes to horticulture.
01:02:50 As a result, we get these beautiful pieces of fruit.
01:02:53 But it is a lot of work to get to that end point
01:02:56 of a beautiful piece of gold kiwi fruit in the supermarket.
01:02:59 However, after a kiwi grower successfully sold his kiwi,
01:03:03 and successfully smuggled sun-gold sprouts overseas,
01:03:06 a number of illegal orchards popped up in China.
01:03:09 Zespri has attempted to regain control of its golden kiwi strain.
01:03:14 But it may be too late.
01:03:16 The smuggler was fined for $14 million in damages.
01:03:20 But since then, the unauthorised sun-gold orchards have doubled in size.
01:03:26 Ironically, kiwis originated in China, where they're known as gooseberries.
01:03:31 While other countries struggled to commercialise the gooseberry,
01:03:34 New Zealand's humid climate has made it ideal
01:03:37 for cultivating and perfecting this unique fruit.
01:03:40 And now, New Zealand's golden kiwis are still the, well, gold standard.
01:03:46 This massive 50kg Nile perch is a rare catch for these Ugandan fishers.
01:03:55 But it's not the fish meat that will make them the most money.
01:03:59 It's this balloon-like internal organ known as a fish maw, or a swim bladder.
01:04:05 Dried fish maws can sell for up to $800 a pound.
01:04:10 But older maws like this one, from a large slate cod croaker,
01:04:14 are valued as high as $4,000 for a single piece.
01:04:27 Fishers sell it to Chinese markets around the world,
01:04:30 where people eat it for its health benefits and supposed anti-ageing properties.
01:04:35 But the supply chain in China is facing a big problem.
01:04:39 Due to overfishing in Chinese waters,
01:04:41 connoisseurs are now looking abroad to places like Uganda for fish maw.
01:04:47 The organ is so prized that smuggling and theft are rampant in the industry.
01:04:52 So why is fishing for maw worth the risk?
01:04:55 And why is it so expensive?
01:04:57 Po Weng Hong Food Market in New York City's Chinatown
01:05:02 has been selling fish maw ever since it first opened in 1980.
01:05:06 Today, it specialises in rare dried seafood delicacies.
01:05:11 Sophia Tsao runs this shop with her parents.
01:05:15 She says that these days, fish maw is so rare
01:05:19 that they have to buy it in bulk as soon as it becomes available.
01:05:23 Usually, we request a certain size and certain type of fish maw
01:05:27 because we know what sells the best.
01:05:29 And we usually maybe get 50% of what we request
01:05:32 because the demand is so high.
01:05:35 Fish maw, or swim bladder,
01:05:36 is an organ that enables fish to control their buoyancy.
01:05:40 Fish maw is traditionally considered one of the four treasures of Cantonese cuisine,
01:05:45 along with shark fin, abalone and sea cucumber.
01:05:49 Tsao Xiong, who has worked for Po Weng Hong for 10 years,
01:05:53 supervises the dried seafood department.
01:05:56 He's an expert on the four treasures.
01:05:58 (speaking Cantonese)
01:06:01 (speaking Cantonese)
01:06:29 The store orders all of its fish maw from a USDA-certified broker
01:06:33 who works directly with traders and fishers in Southeast Asia,
01:06:37 South America and Africa.
01:06:39 Usually, when we order fish maw, it's about 30 to 50 pounds per case.
01:06:45 And general prices are between 4,000 to 8,000,
01:06:48 depending on the quality of the fish maw.
01:06:50 They resell it for anywhere from 200 to 800 dollars per pound,
01:06:55 depending on the type and quality.
01:06:58 The Chinese bahaba, or large yellow croaker,
01:07:00 was a main source of fish maw for decades.
01:07:03 But in 1989, the Chinese government designated it
01:07:07 a grade two state-protected species.
01:07:10 And in 2006, the International Union for Conservation of Nature
01:07:14 also assessed the fish as critically endangered.
01:07:17 Today, the majority of fish maw is imported from other countries,
01:07:22 including Uganda, where fishing for an invasive species
01:07:26 called Nile perch on Lake Victoria
01:07:28 has become a lucrative business for locals like Amber Francis.
01:07:32 It's early morning on Kisimawan Island in Jinja.
01:07:38 Amber is packing up his bait and hooks
01:07:40 and preparing his boat to set out on Lake Victoria.
01:07:43 He's worked as a fisher here for the past 10 years.
01:07:52 He says Nile perch sold for much cheaper when he first started,
01:07:56 before there was demand for the bladders.
01:07:59 The islands in the area around Jinja, like Kisimawan,
01:08:03 are used as a base for the estimated 2,000 or so fishers in the area.
01:08:08 While Ugandans don't typically eat fish maw themselves,
01:08:11 Amber has tried it and loves it.
01:08:14 Yeah, we used to eat it and we enjoyed it a lot.
01:08:19 Other people, sometimes back then, used to throw them away.
01:08:23 Not until they came to realise that it's tasty, it's good.
01:08:27 That's when they started to consume it.
01:08:29 Amber says he can make around $4,000 a month
01:08:36 selling fish maw to traders, depending on the size of his catch.
01:08:41 Each kilo, they can buy it at 25,000, only a kilo.
01:08:48 When I get that one which weighs like 10 kilograms, that's 250,
01:08:52 which is a lot of money in Uganda.
01:08:55 But finding the biggest fish requires some special tricks
01:08:59 and knowing where to look.
01:09:01 The weather right now is good for fishing,
01:09:04 but in two to three hours, the water will be rough.
01:09:08 He focuses on the deep water
01:09:10 and he baits his hooks with a live young catfish,
01:09:14 known locally as ensuma.
01:09:17 If the water is too cold, the ensuma can die instantly
01:09:21 and Nile perch won't go after dead fish.
01:09:24 Each hook is demarcated with a bottle
01:09:27 so he knows which lines belong to him.
01:09:30 Because these fish are so valuable,
01:09:32 theft is also an issue on the lake.
01:09:34 Unfortunately, you go there, you find nothing,
01:09:37 when everything was taken by those thieves.
01:09:40 Once he's baited his lines, he leaves them in the water
01:09:44 and returns to the island to rest until evening.
01:09:47 Now we are going to rest for some time,
01:09:50 like three to four hours,
01:09:52 after we come back and check our hooks,
01:09:55 what we have put there, to see whether there's Nile perch on it.
01:09:59 Amber says he typically catches six or seven fish per day,
01:10:05 usually all weighing under 20 kilograms.
01:10:08 The biggest one he has ever caught was a massive catfish.
01:10:12 The biggest one he has ever caught was a massive 98 kilograms.
01:10:16 I feel good when it pulls me.
01:10:19 Yeah, that's what I enjoy, it's like a game to me.
01:10:22 Today he caught only six fish,
01:10:28 but the biggest one was about 30 kilograms.
01:10:30 I expected to get more than this.
01:10:36 Yeah, actually it's a bad day to me.
01:10:41 The fishers don't remove the bladders themselves.
01:10:43 Tomorrow, Amber will sell his fish directly to the trader,
01:10:47 who hired him at the local market in Masese.
01:10:50 Amber's boss is Hakim Magumba,
01:11:00 who has been working in the fishing industry for about 23 years.
01:11:05 He previously traded tilapia to buyers in Kenya,
01:11:08 but he now works with Nile perch because it's much more profitable.
01:11:12 I fish because I need fish more.
01:11:16 Because fish more is like gold for my side, you understand?
01:11:20 We used to throw it back, we used to throw the bladder,
01:11:24 because it was no sense, we wanted that meat.
01:11:29 But nowadays, money.
01:11:33 Hakim says he has 22 boats and 30 fishers like Amber working for him.
01:11:38 Once they deliver the fish to him,
01:11:41 they are weighed, sorted and priced based on their size.
01:11:45 This fish weighs 12 kilos.
01:11:49 After weighing, we are going to cut it
01:11:52 and see the bladder which is in it.
01:11:55 The bladders must be removed and cleaned by hand.
01:12:00 We sell it at the 500,000 Ugandan shillings.
01:12:05 The rest of the fish doesn't go to waste.
01:12:09 Hakim sells it to the locals in Uganda, where it's a popular delicacy.
01:12:14 The moor will eventually make its way to Chinese exporters
01:12:17 who dry it and ship it to Hong Kong and other locations worldwide.
01:12:22 Hakim is just one of many traders in the area
01:12:24 trying to make a living in fish moor with competitors all around him.
01:12:29 We have people from Kenya, people from TZ,
01:12:34 their own competitors.
01:12:36 Very many.
01:12:38 Very many.
01:12:39 Aside from the competition,
01:12:41 Hakim says one of the biggest challenges the fishers in Uganda face
01:12:45 is run-ins with local authorities.
01:12:48 The guys who are in business of fish moor,
01:12:51 they don't have the licence.
01:12:53 So when you don't have licence, you are caught with the soldiers.
01:12:58 Crime is also an issue on land, according to Hakim.
01:13:02 He says some of his colleagues have been robbed
01:13:04 while transporting their goods to Chinese buyers.
01:13:08 Safety is too much. Too much.
01:13:10 Most are on the loads when you're taking it to the Chinese.
01:13:15 And getting into the industry is costly.
01:13:17 Not everyone can afford the initial investment of equipment,
01:13:20 which includes a government-licensed boat, an engine,
01:13:24 plus regulation hooks and bait.
01:13:28 Yeah, actually, it requires a lot of capital
01:13:31 to deal in fishing in Alpach.
01:13:36 Like me as a fisherman, just one boat, I require like 15 million shillings.
01:13:41 Overfishing has already been detrimental
01:13:44 to many fish species around the world.
01:13:47 A large croaker in Mexico's Gulf of California called the totoaba
01:13:51 is now in danger of extinction due to the fish moor trade.
01:13:55 But this fish, often dubbed the cocaine of the sea,
01:13:58 is still illegally trafficked into China.
01:14:01 In April 2023, US Customs seized $2.7 million worth of totoaba fish moor
01:14:09 hidden in a shipment of frozen fish fillets in Arizona.
01:14:14 Even so, demand for fish moor is not slowing down.
01:14:18 On a weekday morning at Po Wing Hong,
01:14:20 the aisles are as busy as ever,
01:14:22 with customers scouring the shelves for dried seafood products
01:14:26 as soon as they open.
01:14:28 While fish moor is more popular among the older generations,
01:14:31 Sophia says younger people have started incorporating it
01:14:34 into their diets as well.
01:14:36 I feel that nowadays a lot of younger people are eating fish moor
01:14:40 because it reminds them of dishes that they had in the past,
01:14:43 and it's a little bit of nostalgia.
01:14:45 Also, they want to embrace their culture
01:14:48 and relearn the dishes that are really traditional.
01:14:52 And that rare $4,000 fish moor they have on hand?
01:14:56 It's so special to Po Wing Hong that it's not even for sale.
01:15:00 We keep it just as a keepsake.
01:15:02 We just have it as part of our collection.
01:15:04 The first thing you notice about this asparagus is its colour.
01:15:13 But that's only the beginning.
01:15:17 White asparagus has a much thicker stalk than the common green variety.
01:15:22 And...
01:15:23 The white ones, they're a little bit sweeter.
01:15:25 Sweeter and juicier.
01:15:31 Aficionados refer to this vegetable as white gold,
01:15:35 and they're willing to pay three times more for it than green asparagus
01:15:40 because of its distinct flavour.
01:15:42 I have clients calling me, starting in January,
01:15:46 "When is the asparagus coming?"
01:15:47 But since white asparagus and green asparagus are the exact same plant,
01:15:52 growing the perfect colourless stalk to fetch the highest price
01:15:57 requires special preparation, specialised tools,
01:16:00 and a race against the sun.
01:16:03 So what exactly does it take to turn asparagus white,
01:16:06 and why is it so expensive?
01:16:08 I'm the asparagus king.
01:16:12 (LAUGHS)
01:16:15 That's all I need.
01:16:16 There's nothing else I need for lunch or dinner.
01:16:21 Erwin Schröttner is the head chef at Café Katia in New York City,
01:16:25 one of the few places outside Europe that serves Spargel, or white asparagus.
01:16:31 The restaurant offers a special menu every spring.
01:16:34 Look at this.
01:16:37 Those are the asparagus that I'm looking forward to.
01:16:40 They're as thick as my hand.
01:16:42 Even though we are at the end of the season this year,
01:16:45 the asparagus is still amazing.
01:16:49 Do you hear that crack? It's just gorgeous.
01:16:52 Since white asparagus predominantly grows
01:16:55 in Central and Western European countries like Germany, Austria and France,
01:16:59 Erwin must import all the white asparagus he serves in his restaurant.
01:17:04 And it's not cheap.
01:17:06 Very early in the spring, a case can cost as much as $25 per pound,
01:17:11 according to Erwin.
01:17:12 I can't do it. I can't touch it at that price.
01:17:16 I do have to wait until it comes down a little bit,
01:17:19 otherwise I have to charge $100 for a dish.
01:17:23 Because of the high import price,
01:17:25 he charges anywhere from $24 for a small sampler portion
01:17:30 to $46 for a main asparagus dish with a side of roast duck.
01:17:35 He says he goes through anywhere from 120 to 180 white asparagus stalks per day.
01:17:43 By mid-June, he's already down to his very last case.
01:17:47 And here you can see...
01:17:49 ...a case of beautiful, beautiful large asparagus.
01:17:56 I just love when I see this.
01:18:01 So far this year, this was 11 pounds in a case.
01:18:05 I have done 180 cases.
01:18:08 The reason chefs like Erwin are willing to pay such high prices for white asparagus
01:18:15 goes back to the laborious and time-intensive process it takes to grow it
01:18:18 on specialized farms like this one in Bielitz, Germany.
01:18:22 It's Spargel season.
01:18:25 For just three months a year,
01:18:26 the delicacy draws crowds from all over the country for food and festivities.
01:18:32 White asparagus thrives in loose, sandy soil,
01:18:35 like the type found around Bielitz.
01:18:59 Jürgen Jakobs and his brother Josef harvest about 1.5 million kilograms of asparagus per year
01:19:05 on their 618 acres of farmland.
01:19:08 Although they do grow green asparagus,
01:19:10 over 90% of their crop is the more valuable white variety.
01:19:14 Since green asparagus and white asparagus are actually the same plant,
01:19:18 the color it will become depends entirely on how it's raised.
01:19:22 Once an asparagus stalk pops out of the ground,
01:19:24 it's exposed to the sun and produces chlorophyll.
01:19:27 The tip will initially turn slightly purple and then green with more exposure.
01:19:32 The trick to keeping it white
01:19:34 is letting the plant grow as large as possible underground.
01:19:37 Then, once it emerges from the earth,
01:19:39 farmers must harvest it before it has a chance to turn green.
01:19:43 To accomplish this, they build mounds of dirt around the asparagus
01:19:47 and then cover the rows of crops in these foil tarps.
01:19:50 The foil reflects the sunlight away from the plant
01:19:54 and helps prevent the coloration of the stalks.
01:19:56 It also helps maintain the temperature of the plants underground,
01:19:59 which means that Jürgen's farm can control the asparagus yield
01:20:03 based on current demand and weather.
01:20:05 We can use this foil system,
01:20:07 a management system, to control the asparagus yield
01:20:10 and say we want more asparagus,
01:20:13 we turn the black side outwards,
01:20:15 we want less asparagus, we turn the white side outwards.
01:20:20 This way, we can regulate the market a bit
01:20:24 so that we don't have an offer if there's no demand
01:20:29 or no offer if the demand is full.
01:20:33 And demand soars in the spring.
01:20:35 The official asparagus season starts in mid-April
01:20:38 and ends around June 24th, the feast day of St. John the Baptist.
01:20:42 And the strict June cut-off date is crucial to the future of the crop.
01:20:46 Each asparagus stem produces about 15 shoots over the course,
01:21:03 of three months.
01:21:04 Since asparagus is a perennial crop,
01:21:07 the same plant will continue to produce stalks for eight to ten years.
01:21:12 Once the white asparagus heads appear through the mound,
01:21:15 each stalk is removed carefully, one at a time,
01:21:18 using a special asparagus knife called a Spargelstiche.
01:21:21 The trick is to put two fingers into the soil to find the stalk,
01:21:26 insert the knife and pluck it at just the right spot
01:21:29 so you don't destroy the crown or roots.
01:21:31 While much of the harvesting is done by hand,
01:21:33 Jürgen says the farm has automated some of the processes over time
01:21:37 to increase production.
01:21:38 Today, instead of the asparagus basket, there are harvesting aids.
01:22:00 The harvesting aids drive battery-powered over-the-field.
01:22:03 The harvested asparagus is immediately brought inside
01:22:22 for cleaning and sorting.
01:22:24 And speed is crucial,
01:22:25 since white asparagus will begin to spoil
01:22:28 only about ten days after harvesting.
01:22:31 Workers sort the asparagus by quality.
01:22:48 The most expensive Spargel is pure white,
01:22:52 perfectly straight and thick.
01:22:55 But some might have purple colour to them, a thinner stalk,
01:22:58 or a curved shape, which can decrease the price by several euros.
01:23:02 Any asparagus that doesn't make the cut
01:23:05 will return to the farm for use as compost.
01:23:08 The Spargel that passes the quality checks can be sold locally
01:23:11 for anywhere from six to ten euros per kilogram,
01:23:14 depending on the year.
01:23:16 It's also shipped abroad,
01:23:17 where export prices can exceed that range
01:23:20 due to the Spargel's short shelf life and the speed required in shipping.
01:23:24 That's how it ends up in restaurant kitchens around the world,
01:23:28 like Elvin's.
01:23:29 Unlike green asparagus,
01:23:32 white asparagus must be peeled before it can be eaten,
01:23:36 since the long time spent underground
01:23:38 causes it to develop a tough, thick outer layer.
01:23:41 A case like this, it will take me six to seven minutes.
01:23:45 There are 42 to 48 asparagus in there,
01:23:48 depends on size, and then you just...
01:23:50 It just goes.
01:23:53 And the skin is flying off.
01:23:57 White asparagus is also typically boiled in its own stock,
01:24:00 made from these peeled skins.
01:24:03 Two lemons is perfect for my pot here.
01:24:06 And I just put this into the water.
01:24:11 And we have some salt.
01:24:15 That's all we need here to get the water going.
01:24:20 The ends of stalks are also snapped off.
01:24:23 Beautiful.
01:24:24 That was a good one.
01:24:28 And then trimmed to a uniform length
01:24:30 before being placed in the stock and boiled for about ten minutes.
01:24:34 And let them boil.
01:24:39 Now they're ready for plating.
01:24:42 Fine dining restaurants in Europe, when I did this,
01:24:46 we had very crisp still.
01:24:50 If you do this at home and you eat it right away,
01:24:55 you might want to go another two minutes.
01:24:57 The most traditional dish, and the most popular one at Café Katia,
01:25:07 is boiled asparagus smothered in Hollandaise sauce
01:25:10 and served with a side of potatoes.
01:25:13 Some parsley potatoes.
01:25:21 Some parsley potatoes.
01:25:22 That's all I need.
01:25:31 There's nothing else I need for lunch or dinner.
01:25:35 I absolutely don't miss any proteins on this one.
01:25:40 There's definitely proteins in the egg, in the Hollandaise.
01:25:44 That's enough.
01:25:45 He also serves a version covered in lemon vinaigrette
01:25:48 with prosciutto and croutons.
01:25:50 I'm sure he'll be a great chef.
01:25:52 I'm sure he'll be a great chef.
01:25:53 I'm sure he'll be a great chef.
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01:27:41 I'm sure he'll be a great chef.
01:27:43 I'm sure he'll be a great chef.
01:27:45 And while a single fruit sells for around $8 locally,
01:27:49 it can be three times as much abroad.
01:27:51 The more perfect the fruit, the higher the price.
01:27:55 But reaching perfection isn't easy.
01:27:59 These trees have incredibly sensitive roots.
01:28:02 That means if any of a number of things goes wrong,
01:28:05 a whole farm can be irreparably damaged.
01:28:08 If I do something wrong, I have to pay the price.
01:28:12 I can't work for a year or two.
01:28:16 Once the tree is dead,
01:28:19 it can't be regrown.
01:28:22 It has to be moved.
01:28:24 So why do farmers risk their livelihood to grow this fruit?
01:28:28 And why is it so expensive?
01:28:30 This is Bao Quyet,
01:28:36 a farmer in Daxo, Vietnam,
01:28:39 a small village 45 minutes outside Hanoi.
01:28:43 He is one of many farmers in the area
01:28:45 supplying these citrons to the capital city.
01:28:48 Every year, we increase the yield of our orchards.
01:28:54 This year, we have two orchards.
01:28:59 We have more than 600 trees.
01:29:01 This year, we are still harvesting citrons.
01:29:07 Unlike lemons or oranges,
01:29:12 fingered citron has very little juice or pulp.
01:29:16 It can be eaten, but it has a mild taste.
01:29:20 It's edible, but it's not good.
01:29:23 The appeal is in its highly flavorful and aromatic rind.
01:29:28 It's only fragrant.
01:29:31 The citron's aroma is very light and fragrant.
01:29:36 It's not like the citrus of oranges.
01:29:39 Citron fruit is bitter and has a strong smell.
01:29:42 Citron fruit is very aromatic and refreshing.
01:29:47 Buddha's hand citrons are incredibly sought after
01:29:51 during the Mid-Autumn Festival, known as Tet.
01:29:55 This is one of the most important celebrations
01:29:57 in Vietnamese culture.
01:29:59 The fruits are displayed as an ancestral offering
01:30:02 and used in homes to freshen the air.
01:30:05 This small village will be the lead supplier
01:30:07 of these citrons for the event,
01:30:09 so demand will be higher than usual.
01:30:13 Today, Bac Quy and his team are harvesting 300 fruits
01:30:17 based on the order of one customer.
01:30:37 The festival is the busiest time of year for Bac Quyet.
01:30:40 Tak Sa is the main provider of Buddha's hand citron
01:30:53 for the nationwide event,
01:30:55 and Bac Quyet will sell about three times more than usual.
01:31:00 Because most of his fruits will be sold at the festival,
01:31:04 timing is crucial for Bac Quyet.
01:31:07 His trees need to produce enough fruit on time
01:31:10 and grow as big as possible.
01:31:12 (upbeat music)
01:31:15 (upbeat music)
01:31:18 (speaking foreign language)
01:31:21 (speaking foreign language)
01:31:25 (speaking foreign language)
01:31:29 (speaking foreign language)
01:31:58 But Bac Quyet cannot harvest them all at once.
01:32:01 The tree naturally stores water in its roots
01:32:04 to feed the fruit,
01:32:05 and a complete harvest would send the tree into water shock.
01:32:09 This can kill the tree and rot the roots.
01:32:12 In turn, it would destroy his future harvest
01:32:15 and damage the land.
01:32:17 (speaking foreign language)
01:32:21 (speaking foreign language)
01:32:25 He also prefers to harvest the fruit in dry weather,
01:32:37 like today.
01:32:38 (speaking foreign language)
01:32:44 (speaking foreign language)
01:32:47 Eyeballing the weight is also helpful
01:33:12 to quickly fulfil the orders.
01:33:14 (speaking foreign language)
01:33:17 After the harvest,
01:33:24 he will need to plant the trees in new soil.
01:33:27 (speaking foreign language)
01:33:31 (speaking foreign language)
01:33:36 (speaking foreign language)
01:33:40 (speaking foreign language)
01:33:43 (speaking foreign language)
01:33:47 (speaking foreign language)
01:34:13 The Buddha's hand requires lots of attention and care.
01:34:17 This is Bac Quyet's main source of income,
01:34:20 so he cannot make any mistakes.
01:34:23 (speaking foreign language)
01:34:41 Buddha's hand trees grow to about six feet tall
01:34:44 and start bearing fruit after the 10th year.
01:34:47 This is one of the reasons the fruit is so expensive
01:34:51 compared to a lemon tree,
01:34:52 which bears fruit after six to 12 months.
01:34:55 (speaking foreign language)
01:35:09 He also needs to constantly trim the trees
01:35:11 and lower the branches to encourage growth.
01:35:14 (speaking foreign language)
01:35:18 (speaking foreign language)
01:35:22 (speaking foreign language)
01:35:26 (speaking foreign language)
01:35:29 (speaking foreign language)
01:35:33 The closer the fruit looks to a hand,
01:35:59 the more it can be sold for.
01:36:01 The fingers are described as beautiful in this stage.
01:36:05 Generally, a beautiful Buddha's hand is large and round
01:36:09 with many even, protruding fingers.
01:36:11 Bac Quyet prefers fruits with shorter fingers.
01:36:15 (speaking foreign language)
01:36:19 (speaking foreign language)
01:36:23 Bac Quyet's choice is not just aesthetic.
01:36:35 Since the base is where the fruit stores its essential oils,
01:36:38 a bigger base means a bigger and stronger scent.
01:36:41 (speaking foreign language)
01:36:46 (speaking foreign language)
01:36:50 Because of these essential oils,
01:36:59 Buddha's hands have long been used in Asian medicine,
01:37:02 although there's no scientific evidence
01:37:04 to support how effective it is.
01:37:06 The fingers expand and open up only when the fruit is ripe,
01:37:12 but farmers can't control how the fingers
01:37:14 are going to behave.
01:37:16 A single tree can produce multiple fruits
01:37:18 with different shapes.
01:37:20 (speaking foreign language)
01:37:43 A big threat to growing the perfect fruit?
01:37:46 Insects.
01:37:48 When the trees are in bloom,
01:37:49 they become very attractive to insects and pests.
01:37:53 A serious threat is the Asian citrus psyllid,
01:37:56 which also destroys citrus as far as the US.
01:38:00 (speaking foreign language)
01:38:04 (speaking foreign language)
01:38:07 (speaking foreign language)
01:38:11 (speaking foreign language)
01:38:15 After the healthy fruits are harvested,
01:38:40 there's still another important step, packaging.
01:38:44 The fingers break off very easily,
01:38:48 so Barquet takes special precautions to protect them.
01:38:51 (speaking foreign language)
01:38:55 With this careful wrapping,
01:39:06 he can keep the fruits fresh and potent
01:39:08 for at least three months.
01:39:11 (speaking foreign language)
01:39:15 Barquet has completed today's order,
01:39:33 and it's ready to be delivered.
01:39:35 But it's just the start
01:39:36 as he gets ready to sell for the festival,
01:39:39 not only locally, but for expats honoring their ancestors,
01:39:42 as well as new customers all over the world.
01:39:45 Locally, he sells his fruits
01:39:49 for 50,000 to 200,000 Vietnamese dong,
01:39:53 about $2 to $8 each,
01:39:55 but he also sells to international markets.
01:39:58 (speaking foreign language)
01:40:02 (speaking foreign language)
01:40:05 In the UK, a single-fingered citron costs 25 pounds,
01:40:29 while in the US, a box of five costs $65.
01:40:33 Pastry chefs and liquor makers also buy the citron abroad,
01:40:37 particularly the dried versions.
01:40:39 Barquet sells dried Bitter's Hand Fingers
01:40:41 from the less beautiful fruits.
01:40:44 Traders only pay around $1 per kilogram,
01:40:47 but Barquet sells several thousand tons a year.
01:40:52 (speaking foreign language)
01:40:58 (speaking foreign language)
01:41:02 (speaking foreign language)
01:41:05 (speaking foreign language)
01:41:09 (speaking foreign language)
01:41:13 (speaking foreign language)
01:41:39 Today, Victor is climbing trees up to 40 feet high,
01:41:43 equipped with a homemade axe,
01:41:46 a rope, and his own bare feet,
01:41:49 which he's using to reach something very valuable,
01:41:56 the fruits that'll be turned into red palm oil.
01:41:59 Standard palm oil, or palm kernel oil,
01:42:03 is known for being quite cheap,
01:42:05 but red palm oil can cost three times as much.
01:42:09 When it's shipped to the US or the UK,
01:42:12 it can sell for even more, up to $20 for a single liter.
01:42:17 (speaking foreign language)
01:42:20 Workers like Victor face snakes and the risk of falling
01:42:25 just to harvest this valuable fruit.
01:42:29 But what makes red palm oil different from palm oil,
01:42:33 and what exactly makes it so expensive?
01:42:35 (upbeat music)
01:42:38 This is what palm oil looks like.
01:42:45 Our local palm oil.
01:42:48 Actually prefer to cook with red palm oil
01:42:50 because of the taste.
01:42:51 Red palm oil has a mildly floral flavor
01:42:54 and a buttery texture.
01:42:56 Palm oil generally is used for our local food.
01:42:59 All the time, all the time, all the time.
01:43:02 (upbeat music)
01:43:05 Here in Ondor State, Nigeria,
01:43:08 making this local favorite is a labor-intensive
01:43:11 and artisanal process.
01:43:13 Thousands of fleshy palm fruits are transformed
01:43:16 into yellow-brown sludge and then red-orange oil.
01:43:21 Over the course of a week,
01:43:23 it all starts on oil palm plantations like this one
01:43:27 in the village of Ayi.
01:43:28 Every few weeks, expert climbers are called in
01:43:31 to harvest the palm husks.
01:43:33 The trees here can be as high as 60 feet.
01:43:37 Climbers like Victor don't wear any protective gear,
01:43:41 relying on just handmade harnesses and axes
01:43:44 to help them up the palm trees.
01:43:46 (upbeat music)
01:43:48 - And this is our rope, I take it, cut it.
01:43:57 - Victor makes new ropes with fresh palm fibers
01:44:00 whenever he feels his current one is too heavy.
01:44:03 He feels his current one isn't strong or tight enough.
01:44:06 This is important because old rope
01:44:10 can become brittle and snap.
01:44:12 - And sometimes, some people, they use their life.
01:44:16 See my rope now.
01:44:17 You find other people, they will say they use it.
01:44:21 Don't sit in the head, don't hold, and don't break.
01:44:23 You are the clown.
01:44:25 Gentle, gentle, no rush.
01:44:27 Use my axe, we'll hook up for you.
01:44:30 - It takes three years for oil palm trees to bear fruit,
01:44:34 but once they do, they can be harvested year round.
01:44:37 - Sometimes they cut 200.
01:44:45 Every person wants to learn this work.
01:44:50 I have to teach them everywhere.
01:44:52 All these things, and no good green.
01:44:55 This will grow up.
01:44:57 It will clean up for us.
01:44:59 - We are going to cut it now.
01:45:01 See it now.
01:45:09 - The biggest obstacle Victor faces once he's climbing
01:45:12 is snakes.
01:45:13 - If you carry your axe, you won't cut that snake.
01:45:17 It will touch your rope, and that person will fall.
01:45:20 - The risk of falling has led some workers to stop climbing
01:45:23 and instead help with collecting the palm husks
01:45:26 from the safety of the ground.
01:45:28 - I need a climb tree.
01:45:30 Before they climb this bunga, this bunga, this would danger deal.
01:45:35 If you climb, if you go there, you will see snake fall off.
01:45:40 - It's very difficult to separate the fresh fruit
01:45:50 from the thick, spiky palm husks.
01:45:56 So they're left out to dry.
01:45:58 This time also allows the fruit to ferment,
01:46:01 which elevates the oil's flavor.
01:46:03 After three or four days, the fruits are ready to be dehusked.
01:46:08 Randy and other workers use axes to break the husks
01:46:12 and sift the fruits to separate them from dirt.
01:46:24 They collect the fruit in large sacks
01:46:27 and transport it to a processing site
01:46:30 in the nearby village of Ireze.
01:46:37 Randy delivers the palm fruits to his wife, Deborah,
01:46:44 who is one of the many workers toiling away
01:46:47 to transform the fruits into red palm oil.
01:46:51 The sacks of fruit are dumped into buckets and large drums.
01:46:54 - So like this, it don't ferment.
01:47:02 Some people, if they sell like this, they say it don't rot.
01:47:05 It don't rot, you know?
01:47:07 - Water is added to the drums to boil the fruit.
01:47:11 - I go pour water.
01:47:13 But make the water hot, so it doesn't burn.
01:47:16 - The water is added to the drums to boil the fruit.
01:47:19 - But make the water not too much, you know?
01:47:22 I get up and I tell them, "Make your water hot."
01:47:25 - We know the taste. We are local.
01:47:28 So we know the taste and the preparation.
01:47:31 We know the art chemical.
01:47:34 - After one hour, the fruit is ready to be drained
01:47:37 and taken to the miller.
01:47:40 - See, I'm inside this drum.
01:47:43 See the water, it don't change.
01:47:47 - We do it before. If they don't go cut and farm,
01:47:50 if we don't pick and finish,
01:47:53 we get more people who don't do by ourselves.
01:47:56 We don't carry cement, do it very well.
01:47:59 If they don't cook and finish,
01:48:02 they go to the market and we finish.
01:48:05 - But the mill still involves a significant amount of labour,
01:48:08 as someone must manually load and empty the fruit.
01:48:11 [Machine whirring]
01:48:14 [Machine whirring]
01:48:17 [Machine whirring]
01:48:20 - After the mill, it's time for another recently acquired machine,
01:48:26 a hydraulic press.
01:48:29 The fruit, which has been milled into a pulp,
01:48:33 is pressed to release its oil.
01:48:36 [Machine whirring]
01:48:39 No kernel oil is released here,
01:48:42 because that would require the seeds to be dried and cracked.
01:48:45 Some locals do produce kernel oil,
01:48:48 but since it's more difficult to make without special machinery,
01:48:51 it's not as common.
01:48:54 While oil palms originated in West Africa,
01:48:57 colonisation led to the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations
01:49:00 throughout South East Asia.
01:49:03 Eventually, South East Asia took over the global palm oil industry,
01:49:06 and as other oils also grew in popularity,
01:49:09 West Africa never quite caught up.
01:49:13 West Africa's rainy season,
01:49:16 which typically lasts from May to October,
01:49:19 is also an ongoing issue.
01:49:22 - Rainy season, if rain falls, if you climb a palm tree,
01:49:25 it means that maybe you don't plant,
01:49:28 you won't kill yourself,
01:49:31 because you know you go climb, when rain falls,
01:49:34 you're going to die.
01:49:37 - So when it's raining, no one is climbing the trees,
01:49:40 which means the fruit often goes rotten.
01:49:43 And thanks to climate change,
01:49:46 the rainy season has been lasting longer, causing more damage.
01:49:50 This decreases the already low supply of palm fruits,
01:49:53 and raises the price of red palm oil.
01:49:56 In contrast, palm kernel oil plantations
01:49:59 harvest on a massive scale,
01:50:02 and are now in the hands of the government.
01:50:05 - The government doesn't support me,
01:50:08 I don't get any support.
01:50:11 I'm suffering with my children, with my wife, with my friends.
01:50:14 - Our engine, our main engine,
01:50:17 we don't get money to buy a big one,
01:50:20 the one we give for us,
01:50:23 guarantee say this one, we use for five years,
01:50:26 it won't disturb us.
01:50:30 - After enough oil has been collected
01:50:33 in the large bowls underneath the press,
01:50:36 workers carefully scoop the orange-red liquid
01:50:39 into other bowls and buckets.
01:50:42 The oil is poured into drums for a final boil.
01:50:45 After one hour,
01:50:48 the fire is put out,
01:50:51 and the oil is left to cool off.
01:50:54 The finished oil is moved into buckets,
01:50:57 then funnelled into jerry cans.
01:51:00 Deborah says some customers travel
01:51:03 all the way from Lagos state,
01:51:07 which is about five hours away by car,
01:51:10 to buy her red palm oil.
01:51:13 - Some people think I will do more than 15 kegs,
01:51:16 30, 30 litres.
01:51:19 - These kegs sell for $30 each,
01:51:22 although the price can change
01:51:25 - I know they carry my oil in Gumake,
01:51:28 I sell it for my house, I get plenty of customers.
01:51:31 - The price of red palm oil
01:51:34 can also vary depending on location.
01:51:37 A four-litre bottle at a supermarket
01:51:40 in a bigger city like Lagos can cost around $18,
01:51:43 making it the same price,
01:51:47 or even cheaper than some imported vegetable oils,
01:51:50 thanks to Nigeria's volatile exchange rates.
01:51:53 Meanwhile,
01:51:56 the red palm oil that is exported outside of West Africa
01:51:59 is exponentially more expensive,
01:52:02 ranging from $15 to $20 for one litre in the US,
01:52:05 and the cost may only be getting higher.
01:52:08 Cooking oil prices have been on the rise
01:52:11 thanks to weather-related supply shortages
01:52:14 in countries like Argentina and Canada.
01:52:17 The Russian invasion of Ukraine also cut the world off
01:52:21 from the region's supply of sunflower oil
01:52:24 and led Indonesia to ban some exports of its palm oil.
01:52:27 All this raised the global price of cooking oils even higher.
01:52:30 As a result,
01:52:33 the local cost of red palm oil in Nigeria has also increased,
01:52:36 but for many people, the price is worth the taste.
01:52:39 - I believe in my own knowledge,
01:52:42 it's better.
01:52:45 The price, at the expense of me,
01:52:48 I want to go help my mom, my mom, my mom,
01:52:51 because they work, not the East.
01:52:54 - In just a few hours, these salt crystals will disappear.
01:52:57 They are fleur-de-sel crystals,
01:53:00 unique to salt marshes like this one
01:53:04 in Batsur-Mer, Western France.
01:53:07 Cédric has to harvest the fleur-de-sel now,
01:53:10 or it will sink to the bottom of the pond,
01:53:13 ruining the properties that make it unique.
01:53:16 Fleur-de-sel is a salt that dissolves slowly,
01:53:19 so its taste lingers in the mouth.
01:53:22 - I can feel the crystal in my mouth.
01:53:25 It's a bit crunchy, and it's a bit tingly.
01:53:28 - That's part of why it sells for 230 times more than table salt,
01:53:31 domestically, and for up to $420 per kilogram
01:53:34 outside French borders.
01:53:37 But just about every step of the process to get this salt
01:53:41 is difficult.
01:53:44 But the salt is perfect.
01:53:47 And during the harvest, salt producers like Cédric
01:53:50 need to be ready to collect the precious salt at any moment,
01:53:53 or they won't make a profit.
01:53:56 - The wind is a bit strong,
01:53:59 so if we leave the fleur too long, it will thicken and sink.
01:54:02 - Even if they seize the right moment,
01:54:05 the salt has to dry for an entire year before it can be sold.
01:54:08 So is it always worth it to produce fleur-de-sel?
01:54:11 And why is it so expensive?
01:54:14 [music]
01:54:18 - It's 5 p.m. and we're going to the swamp
01:54:21 to get the fleur-de-sel.
01:54:24 The conditions are perfect. It's sunny, we're in the middle of the season.
01:54:28 The fleur-de-sel will form from the beginning of the afternoon
01:54:31 and will continue to accumulate until the end of the day.
01:54:34 It's the wind at the surface of the water
01:54:37 that will allow the salt to crystallize.
01:54:46 - Here we can see some fleur-de-sel.
01:54:49 - Cédric is a paludier,
01:54:52 what salt harvesters are known as in Bades-sur-Mer.
01:54:55 Here, the close proximity to the sea allows salt producers
01:54:58 to easily divert water to shallow ponds,
01:55:01 dug in blue clay.
01:55:04 Unlike table salt, which is typically mined from underground,
01:55:07 fleur-de-sel comes to the surface of the pond naturally.
01:55:10 It's seawater that is slowly evaporating in the summer heat.
01:55:13 The water must be dense enough in terms of salt.
01:55:16 Then the wind will dry the surface of the water.
01:55:19 Little grains will start to form.
01:55:22 As they form, they will agglomerate,
01:55:25 a bit like molecules that will come together.
01:55:29 On a funnel, we'll have 2 to 3 cm maximum on the sides of the water.
01:55:32 In the middle, we'll have less,
01:55:35 about 1/2 cm to 1 cm.
01:55:38 The water will be more dense.
01:55:41 We'll have more or less 1/2 cm to 1 cm maximum.
01:55:44 We'll put water in the morning,
01:55:47 and as the day goes on, the water will evaporate
01:55:50 to leave room for the crystals.
01:55:53 Paludier is a passion.
01:55:56 It's a job you can't do
01:55:59 if you don't like the land you're on,
01:56:02 because you spend a lot of time there.
01:56:06 We get up very early in the morning,
01:56:09 and we work at the same time as the sun.
01:56:12 Since it's 2 cm, there's 2 cm of water at the bottom.
01:56:29 It's a very delicate job.
01:56:32 We'll water the surface of the water to collect the salt.
01:56:37 If I lift the clay, the flower will be all black.
01:56:40 I'm not sure people will like a black salt flower.
01:56:43 The grain is quite big and crystalline.
01:56:55 It's a beautiful flower.
01:56:58 You have to be there to collect it.
01:57:05 Time is the salt.
01:57:08 This season puts the organisms to the test.
01:57:19 It's extremely hot,
01:57:22 and the algae are hard to manage.
01:57:25 They rise very quickly in temperature.
01:57:28 You have to constantly monitor the water,
01:57:31 so it doesn't rise too fast.
01:57:35 It's not the sodium chloride that crystallizes,
01:57:38 but the calcium chloride.
01:57:41 We're no longer working with salt.
01:57:44 The humidity is very high,
01:57:54 20-30-40% when we take the salt out of the water.
01:57:57 The ideal hygrometry for a salt is 6-8%.
01:58:00 It keeps a little bit of fat,
01:58:03 so it keeps the saltiness in the mouth.
01:58:06 The salt flower is a multitude of minerals.
01:58:16 On one side is the sodium chloride,
01:58:19 which is the crystal.
01:58:22 Inside this crystal, there's humidity.
01:58:25 There's potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium chloride.
01:58:29 The more the season advances,
01:58:32 the more the water humidity increases.
01:58:35 The sea water is 30g of salt per litre of water.
01:58:38 Here, it's 300g of salt per litre of water.
01:58:41 When you dry the salt,
01:58:59 it destroys some of the impurities.
01:59:02 It's dry at high temperature,
01:59:05 but it also destroys the nutrients of the salt.
01:59:08 When the salt is just drained,
01:59:11 you'll have impurities inside,
01:59:14 but you keep all the nutrients.
01:59:17 It can be insects that are caught during crystallization,
01:59:20 or it can be a small herb,
01:59:24 or it can be a small clay ball.
01:59:27 The difference is that the salt flower
01:59:30 will be much whiter, thinner, lighter, more aerated,
01:59:33 and much more crystalline.
01:59:36 It's true that we use salt
01:59:39 almost only as a table salt
01:59:42 because of its texture, colour,
01:59:45 and all its attributes.
01:59:49 This is what sets Fleur de Sel apart from table salt,
01:59:52 which contains little to no moisture,
01:59:55 but also from other wet salts that are dried naturally
01:59:58 but have been harvested differently.
02:00:01 Cedric wanted to be even more specific,
02:00:04 so he started to classify his salts
02:00:07 based on the different winds blowing here.
02:00:10 This had never been done before.
02:00:13 The predominant winds here blow from the west and northwest.
02:00:18 Today, we're blowing from the west.
02:00:21 The flower is a bit bigger, but it's often very white.
02:00:24 I like the west wind because it's crunchy.
02:00:27 The west winds are sea winds,
02:00:30 so they're more humid,
02:00:33 and the grain is bigger
02:00:36 because the atmospheric pressure is less strong.
02:00:39 The east winds are land winds,
02:00:42 which are warmer and more aerated,
02:00:45 and the west winds are warmer.
02:00:48 There are two different types of fleurs de sel.
02:00:51 This is the south wind fleur de sel,
02:00:54 with the extremely fine grain.
02:00:58 This is the west wind fleur de sel,
02:01:01 with a grain that's bigger and more corrosive,
02:01:04 a much crunchier side.
02:01:07 You can't hear this one when it falls.
02:01:10 There's almost no noise because it's extremely fine.
02:01:13 This is the west wind, with a grain that's bigger.
02:01:16 You can hear it when it falls.
02:01:19 In France, Cédric's custom salt can sell
02:01:26 for over 10 times as much as other types of fleurs de sel.
02:01:29 Abroad, it can reach $420 per kilogram.
02:01:32 Fleurs de sel is a niche product
02:01:38 because a lot of people have preconceived ideas about it.
02:01:41 A lot of people say that salt is bad for your health,
02:01:44 but it's not the salt that's bad for your health.
02:01:47 It's the bad salt that's bad for your health.
02:01:50 But if people compare it to industrial salt,
02:01:53 it's not the same price.
02:01:56 It's not the same activity, it's not the same salt.
02:01:59 So you can't compare them at all.
02:02:03 His most expensive fleur de sel is this one,
02:02:06 nicknamed "Snow," a 100-gram box,
02:02:09 but Cédric created it by studying the salinity levels in the pond,
02:02:12 combined with a very rare wind.
02:02:15 This is a fleur de sel "Snow."
02:02:18 It's a fleur de sel produced by south winds.
02:02:21 South winds are rather rare on the Pasquille.
02:02:24 In general, we make it at the end of the season.
02:02:27 It gives it an extremely fine texture, extremely soft.
02:02:30 Some years, we won't have any at all,
02:02:33 and other years, we'll make between 200 and 400 kilos
02:02:36 on the whole production. It's really very small in terms of quantity.
02:02:40 It's about a third more expensive than the rarity of the product.
02:02:43 It looks like snowballs.
02:02:46 The salt is much more compact.
02:02:49 Because it's much thinner, when it dries,
02:02:52 the grains will cluster together.
02:02:55 -It's much stronger. -It's much stronger than the tar.
02:02:58 And it's much longer.
02:03:01 I'm going to feel the crystal in my mouth.
02:03:04 I'm going to have the crunchy, soothing side
02:03:07 that I wouldn't have at all with the fleur de sel "Snow."
02:03:10 The snow will melt when we make the cuisine,
02:03:13 while the west wind will crunch under the teeth.
02:03:17 Cédric wasn't born into this job.
02:03:22 He started harvesting salt as a hobby with friends 20 years ago.
02:03:25 At the time, he had an office job in Paris.
02:03:28 It's a radical change.
02:03:33 I have a company in the field of human resources
02:03:36 in the Paris region, and tomorrow morning,
02:03:40 I'm going to be a farmer.
02:03:43 It's a change that's happening fast.
02:03:46 And this time to prepare was also a time to learn.
02:03:49 At some point, you feel ready, you go, and you say, "OK, stop.
02:03:52 I'm going to stop getting on the train.
02:03:55 I'm going to stay here and start harvesting salt seriously."
02:03:58 Today, he works with another paludier on 62 salt ponds,
02:04:01 and he collaborates with 10 other companies on over 100 ponds.
02:04:07 The paludiers have taught me, over time,
02:04:10 that they're people who have given me their know-how.
02:04:13 It's very noble.
02:04:17 It's important to have a real added value in what you do
02:04:20 and the way you do it.
02:04:23 Fleur de sel is actually a by-product of another type of salt, coarse salt.
02:04:28 Under the fleur de sel, you can see it here,
02:04:31 there's the coarse salt, which crystallized directly on the clay.
02:04:35 In the pond, it's a symphony between the two.
02:04:38 Sivrik can only harvest coarse salt in the morning,
02:04:58 before fleur de sel forms,
02:05:01 or just after harvesting it, in the late afternoon.
02:05:05 These movements are too harsh for fleur de sel
02:05:08 and would instantly destroy it.
02:05:11 For a paludier, coarse salt takes up most of the time at work,
02:05:26 and also most of the harvest.
02:05:29 For every 10 kilos of coarse salt,
02:05:32 he needs one kilogram of fleur de sel.
02:05:35 Still, because of the hand-harvest method,
02:05:38 this coarse salt remains seven times as expensive as table salt.
02:05:41 But Sivrik didn't want to stop at the whims with his salt.
02:05:46 He now plays with moisture to develop new flavors.
02:05:49 His most successful creation was this one, smelt salt.
02:05:53 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:05:56 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:06:24 Sivrik uses a mix of west and east wind salts
02:06:27 that have already dried for one year.
02:06:30 The salt smokes for 12 hours.
02:06:37 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:06:40 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:06:43 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:06:46 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:06:50 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:06:53 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:06:56 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:06:59 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:07:09 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:07:12 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:07:27 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:07:37 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:07:40 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:07:47 He's now collaborating with chefs to create custom salts.
02:07:58 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:08:02 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
02:08:05 (SIVRIK SPEAKS FRENCH)
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