So, what happened next? Did Cherry Republic go bust? No, they imported cherries from another supplier. Polish farmers exported cherries to the Cherry Republic.
"Last month, as the foreign cherries were due to arrive, the leader of the Cherry Republic hung a Polish flag in his store, alongside a banner saying "Long Live Poland!"
Poland, at least, was pleased. "That's very cute," said the Polish Embassy's Magda Dybek in Washington."
This is a fun example of how international trade protects firms against climate shocks. Yes, there are local employment impacts from the climate shock as cherry picking jobs vanish but the firm figures out a strategy to cope and consumers will have access to the products they enjoy. Michigan's agricultural workers will need to think about diversification strategies (such as geographical migration) to protect themselves here against income losses. They lost income because the weird weather destroyed the local cherry crop leaving them little work to do. I will return to this point in a future blog post.
