London, UK: Supermarket shortages of some fruit and vegetables, including tomatoes, have been blamed largely on poor weather.
In the last few days pictures of empty shelves of fruit and vegetables have appeared on social media. Supermarkets moved quickly to ration certain products. Asda has introduced a temporary three-pack limit for purchases of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries while Morrisons plans to impose a cap of two items per customer across tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers from today (Wednesday).
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that harvests of a range of crops had been hit by “difficult weather conditions” in Europe and Africa.
“While disruption is expected to last a few weeks, supermarkets are adept at managing supply chain issues and are working with farmers to ensure that customers are able to access a wide range of fresh produce,” said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC.
Grocers said that less winter production in greenhouses in Britain and the Netherlands due to high energy costs had made the situation worse.
Britain typically imports 95% of its tomatoes and 90% of lettuces from December to March, (predominantly from Spain and Morocco), according to BRC figures.
Former Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King weighed into the debate, arguing that although the supply of fruit and vegetables has been affected by poor weather abroad, the sector had also been “hurt horribly by Brexit”.
And Spanish fruit and vegetable exporters association Fepex said: “It’s Brexit and all the paperwork. We have no problems at all exporting to EU countries.
The Spanish are “perplexed” Fepex says, that weather is being cited “as it lowered our production only for a couple of days”.
Shane Brennan, chief executive, Cold Chain Federation, does not believe the supply problems are a consequence of Brexit: “Feeding a large urbanised population relies on a complex and diverse supply chain – we need strong domestic and overseas supply options. We must accept that climate is going to get more and more unpredictable – investing in resilience and storage is key.”
However, he warns that it could become harder and more expensive to source some products in the future if the UK finally brings in checks on food entering the UK at the end of the year as these trade barriers will mean more paperwork.
The government believes that the shortages could last at least a fortnight, and possibly up to a month.
