That the food supply is probably capped at like 10%, that so many big cities are bundled together without any major food producers. In most places, food supply is close to 100% (when discarding tiny realms that have extreme ratios), meaning a relatively small demand for food and keeping food prices down. In Dwilight, D'Hara has a demand that is unequaled anywhere else in the game, making a considerable pressure on food stocks and driving prices up.
I even predict it to eventually become problematic that the food prices are capped. Our suppliers are asking, on average, increasing prices. If we can't set a buy price higher than their sell price, then our traders can't make a profit. If they can't make a profit, then why would they bother? The 50 gold per unit limit is going to seriously hurt, if it remains too long.
How many other buyers do they have though? The real issue in things like this is which party will break down first, the buyers that need that food, or the suppliers that want the gold. Of course you could go with a plan C and annex the damn food suppliers, but of course that is not always possible.
Far as I can tell, FEI has several realms that operate with food deficits or run so close to the supply that any bad weather results in starvation. Probably not on the level of D'Hara but I know Arcaea has been trying to buy food from pretty much any realm they can.
