Supermarkets in UK Face Tomato Shortages

Some fruits and vegetables, like tomatoes, haven’t been getting to UK supermarkets because of bad weather in Europe and Africa. Difficult weather conditions had a negative impact on harvests, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Over the past few days, there have been a lot of pictures on social media of empty supermarket shelves. Industry sources have acknowledged that supply issues have existed temporarily. The lack of tomatoes appears to be particularly significant in the social media images.

Morocco and southern Spain grow a significant amount of the tomatoes we consume in the winter. Both areas have recently been impacted, first by warm weather, which has had an effect on crop yields, and then by cold weather, which has caused growth times to be longer. Supplies have also been affected by weather-related cancellations of Morocco-bound ferries.

According to Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC, supermarkets are working with farmers to ensure that customers are able to access a wide range of fresh produce and are adept at managing supply chain issues. Other businesses, on the other hand, have also been impacted.

On its website, the wholesaler Heritage Fine Food Company in Wiltshire, which supplies schools, cafes, and restaurants in the south west of England, stated that sourcing tomatoes was incredibly challenging. According to Wiltshire, there were extremely limited supplies of cucumbers, and peppers were failing to ripen.

During the winter, the United Kingdom imports a portion of the Netherlands’ large greenhouse-grown fruits and vegetables. Although it is evident that the companies that produce them have been severely impacted by high energy costs, it is unclear whether this has affected supplies in the UK.