A girl photographs empty shelves in a supermarket on February 25, 2023 in Cardiff, Wales.
Matthew Horwood | Getty Images | News Getty Images
LONDON – The UK’s largest supermarkets are reducing purchases of some fruit and vegetables as shortages result in empty shelves.
The UK’s largest supermarket chain, Tesco, has reduced purchases of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to 3 per customer. He said the move was as a result of bad weather conditions overseas and was working with suppliers to “get things back to normal”.
Asda has moreover set a limit of three items for lettuce, salad bags, cauliflower and raspberries, while Morrisons limits shoppers to 2 items for cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. German discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl also introduced restrictions.
Groups including the National Farmers’ Union have previously warned that UK farmers face higher energy costs, reducing their ability to grow certain fruits and vegetables in heated greenhouses. Other farmers in northern Europe face similar problems; while tomato diseases and increased fuel costs are further challenges.
In an emailed statement, Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability on the British Retail Consortium, said the situation was delivered to a head by weather conditions in Southern Europe and North Africa that disrupted the harvest.
Hostile conditions include heavy rains hitting Morocco and cooling down in Spain.
The disruption is predicted to last for several weeks Opi said.
In response to the BRC, the UK imports around 95% of its tomatoes in the course of the winter.
Analysts say supply constraints leading to higher costs, the tendency for off-season products to turn into popular within the UK year-round and the greater logistical challenge of attending to an island nation mean shortages are hitting where they do not exist in countries comparable to France, Spain , Portugal and the Netherlands.
The UK government didn’t discover Brexit as an element, blaming weather conditions.
EU member Ireland can be experiencing fruit and vegetable shortages. Ireland’s supermarket bosses were summoned to fulfill the country’s food minister on Monday to elucidate how they are handling the situation, Irish News reported.
Nevertheless, Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of European farming group Copa, told the Financial Times that the additional formalities faced by exporters because of this of Brexit meant extra trouble that might cause them to lift prices, which UK supermarkets will not be willing to tackle. yourself or pass it on.
James Walton, chief economist on the Institute of Grocery Distribution, told CNBC: “The UK depends heavily on fresh produce imports in any respect times of the yr, especially in winter – the EU accounts for a big proportion of those imports. If there may be a shortage of production within the EU, it could make sense for EU producers to fulfill local demand first. This leaves less to export to the UK.”
“The UK is now out of the EU. Nevertheless, we’ve got a broad trade agreement that covers every kind of food. Most aspects affecting accessibility would apply whether we are in or out of the EU,” Walton said.
UK Food Minister Mark Spencer said on Monday he had spoken to retailers about how they were responding to shortages and asked them to arrange for future incidents.