Automation doesn't reduce costs toward zero. It reduces them toward their irreduceable inputs.
It's a bit like Amdahl's Law of Parallelisation.
In some cases, that irreducible input is fairly small -- microchips and software can do a great deal (though at scale, they also represent some of the most expensive, and energy-hungry systems we've ever built).
In others ... not so much. Heating water from 0C to 100C will always take 100 calories per gram (and markedly more to convert it to steam). Casting a 22 kg iron weightlifting plate will require 22 kg of iron (and all its embedded energy). Food has its inputs, including sunlight, water, nugrients, land, topsoil, pest control, sowing, and harvesting. You might move that into a lab (I tend to doubt that), but there's still going to be some irreduceable residual.
(Actually, the story may be far worse in that we've taken a system which produces 2-8x the human labour energy inputs to one which consumes 5-10x the food energy output, largely as fossil fuels. Discounting soil and nutrient inputs.)
I strongly suspect your fruit prices are asymptotically approaching some lower bound other than zero.
It's a bit like Amdahl's Law of Parallelisation.
In some cases, that irreducible input is fairly small -- microchips and software can do a great deal (though at scale, they also represent some of the most expensive, and energy-hungry systems we've ever built).
In others ... not so much. Heating water from 0C to 100C will always take 100 calories per gram (and markedly more to convert it to steam). Casting a 22 kg iron weightlifting plate will require 22 kg of iron (and all its embedded energy). Food has its inputs, including sunlight, water, nugrients, land, topsoil, pest control, sowing, and harvesting. You might move that into a lab (I tend to doubt that), but there's still going to be some irreduceable residual.
(Actually, the story may be far worse in that we've taken a system which produces 2-8x the human labour energy inputs to one which consumes 5-10x the food energy output, largely as fossil fuels. Discounting soil and nutrient inputs.)
I strongly suspect your fruit prices are asymptotically approaching some lower bound other than zero.