Fruit and Vegetable Shortage in UK Leads Supermarkets to Ration

Fresh produce shortages have prompted UK supermarkets — including Asda, Morrisons and Tesco — to ration their fruits and vegetables.

Tomatoes, lettuce and peppers were being limited to three per customer at Asda, reported BBC News. Tesco, the latest store to implement buying limits, had a maximum of three per customer for cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, The Independent reported.

The fresh produce shortages were mostly caused by extreme weather like snow and flooding in north Africa and Spain, where a good deal of the UK’s supply comes from this time of year, as well as planting reductions in greenhouses by British farms in the face of rising heating costs.

“Domestic production of salad, including cucumbers and tomatoes, has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1985,” National Farmers Union President Minette Batters said, as reported by The Guardian. “We can do something about it, but it needs government to act to drive down inflation in primary production.”

UK supermarket chain Morrisons had imposed a two-item maximum for lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

Asda was also limiting its customers to three each of raspberries, cauliflower and broccoli.

“Like other supermarkets, we are experiencing sourcing challenges on some products that are grown in southern Spain and north Africa,” a spokesperson for Asda said, as The Guardian reported.

Availability of some crops was down from 30 to 40 percent, industry insiders said. Reynolds Catering Supplies reported a 70 percent reduction in Spain’s pepper harvest.

Usually about 80 percent of many of the UK’s vegetable and salad crops come from the city of Murcia in southeastern Spain this time of year.

For some produce, wholesale prices have risen to three times the standard amount.

During the winter months, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Italy are often relied upon as alternative suppliers, but have recently been hit by cold weather, and storms have been delaying shipments from Morocco.

According to the British Retail Consortium, the shortages were predicted to last until the start of the growing season in the UK, which typically begins in March.

Managing director of nationwide produce Tim O’Malley said domestic crops could also see shortages, as UK crops like cabbage, carrots, cauliflower and parsnips had been hit by extreme winter weather, reported BBC News.

“We are about to see serious shortages and price hikes on these lines in the coming weeks and months,” O’Malley said, as BBC News reported. “The biggest issue we now have as an industry is not inflation, it’s mother nature.”