Fruit and veg shortages

[Buttalapasta]

I'm not in the UK but I keep on seeing pictures on Twitter of empty supermarket shelves for fruit and veg. Is it really a problem or are they isolated issues?

no peppers in local Waitrose of any colour or variety

I took an early doors trip to Tesco and only thing I could not buy was yellow peppers. Plenty of green and red peppers which I got, but DS likes the yellow ones - well tough luck, he will live!!

They had tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce etc.

i think early morning shoppers will be better able to get what they need

I get to Sainsbury's just after 7am and there have been very few tomatoes the last 2 weeks. Last week it was about half a dozen packs of big tomatoes the week before a similar quantity of cherry tomatoes.

Doesn't help if a re opens requires particular items and you then have to replan mid shop. Tuna and tomato flan doesn't really work with swede or sprouts

It works with broccoli or spinach, though, in a flan. Or you could serve omelettes with swede mash, and lightly fried sprouts..

High quality research shows that we should be eating a much more varied fruit and vegetables diet-and around 30 a week (can include herbs, spices, garlic, nuts and seeds). So for some it may be an opportunity to experiment.

I was wondering why Lidl only had two choices of tomato today - either cherry type on stalks for a whopping £2.99 (no thanks!) or the kids Cherry tomatoes that are all different colours. Gave them a whirl and they were actually quite nice.
Plenty of cucumber and got a big bag of peppers.
I did go early today though.

Not isolated. Aldi 14th Feb. I went for salad and veg. Came away with a box of mushrooms, some carrots and a cauliflower. Tried Asda up the road, same problem.

There's no crop failure. That's government propaganda. I have family in France (brother), Denmark (cousin) Germany (loads of family as I'm half German) and Italy (daughter in law.
When I whatsapped them to ask they sent me photos showing supermarkets full of an abundance. Tomatoes in a supermarket in Germany.
twitter.com/i/status/1628460259244228608
Tomatoes in a small shop in Berlin.

twitter.com/i/status/1628357723287871488

I'm in the northwest and my local Aldi was fully stocked h this morning

It's not propaganda. Some suppliers experienced problems. What would normally happen is that supermarkets would source from elsewhere (as EU countries have done) but there are several reasons why they didn't- Brexit makes it harder and more expensive to import especially at short notice, hauliers don't want to come to the UK due to Brexit and generally rubbish conditions and British producers are producing less due to high fuel costs. So Brexit may not have caused the problem but it is exacerbating it.

No shortage even in war torn Ukraine.
The BBC is just the government propaganda mouthpiece. Government is terrified in case the voters discover they were lied to and are still being lied to and get angry.
It doesn't occur to the Brexit liars like Rees-Mogg that we all have internet access and can discover the truth if we can be bothered to look online and want to know the truth. Plenty prefer blissful ignorance, sadly.

That kid’s face reminds me more of posts saying wah they have tomatoes in war zones and everyone’s thick, racist etc

Its not just tomatoes. Everyone has jumped onto that, but in season basics like cauliflower, kale and broccoli are also in short supply and much more expensive. This is partly driven by weather last summer, but also partly because we don't have the same number of seasonal pickers that we did before.

I said in 2016 we'd all be living on turnips after we leave the EU.

Not sure why you think everyone is thick and racist. I'm not.

Why do you think everyone's thick and racist? I'm neither.

partly because we don't have the same number of seasonal pickers that we did before.

Here's an idea - why don't we make a customs union with our nearest neighbours so businesses don't have to worry about taxes, quotas, tariffs and form-filling so there aren't massive queues of lorries at ports?

And have free movement of people so people can take up job opportunities where additional workers are required?

OH.

I don’t but I’ve seen posts on here claiming Brexit voters are. Might be on the other veg thread running.

Re the kid’s face - Brexit voters won so they don’t need to tantrum really

So if we get rid of the paperwork we can tomatoes again? Is it the Brexit paperwork? Will all our problems disappear if we remove customs paperwork?

I'm in Italy at the moment, no real shortages but bloody hell the prices took some adjusting to. I suspect if the UK charged the same prices people would be up in arms, but perhaps the reality is they've exploited the supply chain in the drive for cheap food and goods for too long and its coming home to roost?

fenwoman123
There's no crop failure. That's government propaganda. I have family in France (brother), Denmark (cousin) Germany (loads of family as I'm half German) and Italy (daughter in law. When I whatsapped them to ask they sent me photos showing supermarkets full of an abundance.

Do you have any relatives in the Netherlands?

From thewooster's link on another thread; NL Times (22 Feb 2023);

Cold weather in Southern Europe and empty Dutch greenhouses due to high energy bills have resulted in empty vegetable shelves in the Netherlands

Tomatoes, peppers, cauliflowers, and avocados are in short supply - and their prices have risen accordingly,

Supermarkets are putting up signs that the supply of fresh fruit and veg is smaller...
Some supermarkets limit how many cauliflowers, for example, each customer can buy.

“It is difficult to say how long this will last because it is very weather dependent, and that is difficult to predict. But it is no reason to panic,”[Marc Wever of supermarkets’ organization CBL] said: “Think of vegetables from the freezer or vegetable packages from the refrigerated shelves.”

nltimes.nl/2023/02/22/avocado-tomato-prices-rise-substantially-due-weather

And here - shortages of bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli and iceberg lettuce in the Netherlands (16 Feb 2023);

There are even supermarkets that haven't offered cauliflower and broccoli for two weeks now. It's an unprecedented situation with no end in sight yet," Dennis [van Tricht] concludes.

www.freshplaza.com/europe/article/9503487/no-end-to-cauliflower-shortage-in-sight-yet/

Definitely a crop failure in Southern Spain

The savoy cabbages were tiny!