I am so fed up of a lack of food in shops.

[OutofEverything]

This has been going on for a few years but is only getting worse. I had to go to 3 supermarkets before I found some eggs. No lettuce at all, a few packs of salad tomatoes available in one supermarket, loads of empty spaces in the fruit and veg section, and in ASDA even the freezers had loads of empty spaces.

Before anyone says yes I know we will not starve, there is enough actual food. But a visit to a supermarket now is a lottery about what will be available and what is missing. And more and more I am having to visit multiple shops to get absolute basics.

Other than poor crops, soaring production costs (energy/labour), Brexit and Ukraine, another factor is that the UK major supermarkets like to fix prices from suppliers many months in advance. Whereas most European supermarkets are more flexible and use almost spot pricing. So when crops are reduced or the price of production increases, European supermarkets can accept the higher price and if necessary, pass on to the consumer. UK supermarkets aren't this flexible, so producers are fulfilling the European orders at the higher price, rather than the UK.

Yes, as an old farmer friend used to say " until people of this country start to starve nobody will talk of the farmers". How true he was.

Welcome to Brexit.

Yeah the prices of fresh fruit and veg go up and down all the time at my supermarket in Finland.

sydneysunset
If you were willing to pay £2 for a cucumber (or £2 for a head of broccoli) like people in France or Germany, trust me, there wouldn't be any shortages.

You are probably right - article here from February 2017

Fruit and vegetable shortage hits supermarkets.
03-Feb-2017 By Gwen Ridler
Retailers are rationing fruit and vegetables sold to consumers, after poor weather in Spain over Christmas [2016] continued to restrict UK supplies.

"With Germany, France and the rest of the EU too, the people who are prepared to pay are going to get it"

www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2017/02/03/Shortages-of-fruit-and-vegetables-plagues-UK

You Brexiteers promised cheaper food along with other snake oil products. Instead you helped breakdown the United Kingdom and emboldened despots with whose mischief they tarried and still you still have no shame.

I am currently hiding from the UK winter on the island of Madeira, I am paying much less for petrol, electricity and food.

The shops are as well stocked as they have always been (have a house here for many years). Although I am noticing higher prices in supermarkets. It is so cheap to eat out, if you eat where the locals do, you can get a drink (wine, beer, soft) meal and coffee for €6.

One of the family had a medical emergency and was triaged at a local 24hr health centre within minutes of arriving.

I am honestly thinking of making it permanent. The only problem is that post from the uk is very hit and miss because now everything has to go through customs due to Brexit.

They don't want to admit it but it is Brexit

oh and its warm,

Yes that’s an interesting observation. It used to be more like this in the UK. Price variations used to sometimes work in favour of the shopper if you were savvy. When there is an excess produced, there is scope for the price to fall. My old Delia Smith cook book promotes eating seasonally to save money, but it doesn’t really work like that here any more!

No, but Brexit was largely down to him. He pushed through the deal that he and the ERG are all noe complaining about and the gang of Brexity incompetents that he promoted are still running the country.

There is definitely no helping you with such a total loss of perspective my friend.

It is a whole new level of first world problems. Grotesque given the reasons why we are in this position. Some of us understand the suffering in Ukraine rather more than others it seems.

I voted Remain but I don't think that kind of comment is helpful, it just gets backs up and people entrenching themselves further/ more head in the sand etc.
A lot of people were conned

There is a shiny gold star ⭐️ just for you.

TempsPerdu
I really don’t see how that’s relevant? [German men eat the fewest vegetables in Europe]. It doesn’t mean the fruit and vegetables aren’t available in the shops. And no one is claiming that the German diet is the pinnacle of healthy living

Fruit and vegetable consumption per capita is clearly going to have some relevance when there is a shortage of supply.

some trade talk

www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2023/02/sainsburys-brexit

Sainsbury’s former CEO Justin King has blamed Brexit for “horribly hurting” UK supermarkets following supply shortages.

I wonder if they know what they are talking about ?

They don't want to admit it but it is Brexit
People definitely seem to want to ignore that it could be a factor, don't they...
I'm not saying it's wholly down to it, but it will definitely be playing a part.

I have noticed a lack of red peppers in Sainsbury's, went over to Lidl and nothing there either.

What did I do? Just changed my intended meal for that night. Minestrine soup made with kale, celery, carrots, beans, pasta and tinned tomatoes, instead of lasagne and salad.

There is plenty of food around even if it's not exactly what you're looking for. Make adjustments to your meal plan.

It’s 8c in Madeira - 9c in the UK
Forecast is for rain tomorrow in Maderised. U.K.: glorious sunshine

‘Warm’ you sat? 8c…… ummmm sure.

😂 then you have the gall to say it's others posts who are coming across as unhinged, all the time seeing screaming and tantrumming as well 😕😂

It is dull, boring and entirely predictable

Or maybe reverse Brexit…

@Blessedwithsunshine if you're going to lie, lie about things that can't be instantly proven to be a lie.

Leaving the Single Market and Customs Union is not the cause of every problem in Britain.

But there isn't a single way in which it has made life better and it's made a lot of things worse to some extent.

We don't need to rejoin the EU to make life better for ourselves but giving ourselves this extra hardship of being outside the CU and SM is just plain stupid.

I have noticed a lack of red peppers in Sainsbury's, went over to Lidl and nothing there either.

What did I do? Just changed my intended meal for that night. Minestrone soup made with kale, celery, carrots, beans, pasta and tinned tomatoes, instead of lasagne and salad

There is plenty of food around even if it's not exactly what you're looking for. Make adjustments to your meal plan

And all the full-time working families around me (i.e. pretty much everyone I know) who are rushing to pick their DC up from after-school club/nursery at 6pm before trying to cobble something together for dinner before bedtime? Who do a weekly big shop/meal plan at the weekend because that is the only time they have to think or go anywhere near a shop - what do they do?

I really don’t know who these people are who have time to visit 5 or 6 different shops daily, or to tinker with recipes to adapt to what happens to be available on a given day. Plenty of people where I am, who might have a bit of money but certainly very little in the way of time, are already relying on Deliveroo and JustEat as it is.