Yep, the tomatoes coming from Spain, Italy, etc have a lot more flavor. NL is more like the Shenzhen of agriculture (not saying it like it's a bad thing)
Not disagreeing here, but how I understand it, the year-round availability of fresh produce is a quality trade-off.
though Tomatos can be bought in cans with lots of better taste
There is nothing like driving from the Netherlands to Germany, going to the Supermarkt and buying cucumbers branded Origin Netherlands at 60% of their price in the Netherlands...
Germany is the black hole of supermarket prices. Even shit made in Austria is cheaper once you cross the border to Germany than in the country where it's made. It's insane.
The single market at work, and such a small amount of a product's cost is from making it. I am always sad about not being near an internal EU border for this reason. (though, if my time were worthless, I'd probably come out ahead buying plane tickets)
I lived near an internal EU border and I can confirm - you can get the best of two countries ! I guess over time the differences in EU should diminish, but it will take decades.