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.

I don't pay anywhere near those prices. I live there.
I couldn't believe the prices of food when I visited my mum a couple of weeks ago.

The government really needs to have a well thought out plan for agriculture/food production. This would include working out exactly where the casual workforce of pickers, preparers and packers would come from, and how farmers would be encouraged to invest in the schemes now that EU subsidies are no longer available.

My brother is a small farmer, and he has taken country stewardship. This means (very simply) that he has to grow wildflowers and mixed herbage that will encourage wildlife and pollination. This is great, but the country needs lettuce and salad leaf. He cannot grow these, becoming a country steward and essentially opting out of farming and into conservation is the only way he can survive.

I know there have been adverse weather conditions, that there is a war in Ukraine and that soaring energy prices mean it is really hard to heat greenhouses. However, the government and the media grossly underplay the effect of Brexit. We cannot easily acquire the produce we need, we cannot easily acquire the labour we need to prepare our own produce, but in the five years the government had to plan the after effects of leaving the EU, they never once thought about investing in domestic food production. A green agenda is fine, but it does not feed a nation.

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

What was his excuse in 2017?
9 February 2017
THESE are dark times times for British vegetable lovers as UK supermarkets are forced to limit sales - costing them at least £8million in just four weeks.
Tesco and SAINSBURY'S customers will only be allowed a maximum of three lettuces per visit because of a shortage due to poor growing conditions in Europe.

SAINSBURY'S say they do not know when courgettes will be back in stock
Iceburg lettuce and broccoli are the latest household vegetables to suffer shortages.
Courgette and spinach supplies have been severely affected over the past month due to the cold weather.
Aubergines, tomatoes and peppers are also affected - with stock from Spain down around 25 per cent.
Cabbages supplies have also suffered, with experts unsure where shortages may fall next.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/2774614/vegetable-shortage-2017-supermarkets-rationing-broccoli-lettuce-crisis/

I live in the East Midlands and have never had any shortages, not sure why some branches of some supermarkets are struggling with supply.

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.

But even if that were to happen, then the UK would be bound by rules it has no say in.

And surely Brexiteers could have come up with recipes using "sovereignty" or "control", since it was so precious to them ?

What a moan about nothing.

If you're that worried, grow your own veg! Or is that too much work?

The shortages may have a reason behind them but are now fanned by media hysteria and people panic buying.

It's like Covid and toilet roll all over again.

maddy68
I don't pay anywhere near those prices. I live there

France or Germany? I thought you lived in Spain actually.

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

Another factor not considered in the article is that tomatoes and cucumbers are highly perishable. Fresher produce is easier to retail at a premium price. In general, it’s quicker to get Spanish cucumbers onto German supermarket shelves than British ones due to distance and the relative ease of borderless trade within the EU.

Few consumers will pay over the odds for a bendy cucumber. We prefer it to last for 5 days or so for packed lunches. We find an alternative. The supermarket reduces the cucumbers, then eventually skips those that don’t sell, incurring disposal costs.

Supermarket buyers take these factors into consideration when ordering ahead.

Perhaps you could read the news to enlighten yourself?

I went early and got all my fruit, salad and veg and eggs. I've just read about a lady who wanted to buy 100 cucumbers in Aldi for her juicing business, crazy woman.

Thank you, yes this!

Have we blamed Net Zero yet?
Your fancy non-seasonal food has more carbon attached to it than your carbon allowance.
Please step back and starve whilst the mega rich jet about to more climate conferences.

Seriously though. Gas prices mean lots of heated greenhouses aren't being used in Netherlands.

Kale is often missing.
It is not just one ingredient, lots of things are hit and miss. Sure we can constantly change what we planned to eat. But is this really what we should accept? A country where basic foods are often hard to get?
The shelves I now see in my local supermarket remind me of the news reports in the 1970s from Russia.

Only had trouble with eggs. Bird flu cannot be helped and no point being fed up. As to other stuff we've been spolit by produce flown round the world. As a kid growing up in the 70s I would have found salad in February really odd anf we still don't buy much salad in the winter. We have lost the habit of eating seasonally and we really need to get it back. That and a habit of growing more of our own and preserving stuff. I don't mean slaving over a hot stove making chutneys or sterilising jars and pickling things necessarily, unless that's your bag, but simply wanging things in the freezer when there is a glut.

East Anglia here. I shop each week at M&S and Aldi, the only shortage I’ve noticed is eggs. That’s been for quite a while and is down to the avian flu situation.

On a side note, surely a family getting through 6 packs of laxatives a day needs medical intervention rather than worrying about how many cucumbers they can get hold of!

I'm in France and just come back from Spain. No shortages in either country

I'm the first to pick something else if an item isn't in stock, i.e. I'll pick another item of fruit/meat etc, I'm not fussy, I don't go to multiple supermarkets if I can't find something and I'll try and make do with what we have. That doesn't mean there isn't a supply chain issue at the moment! You just have to look at the supermarket shelves to see there's been consistantly less stock over the last few years.

If you're that worried, grow your own veg! Or is that too much work?

British people really do have unrealistic expectations. I notice all those decrying Brexit are conveniently ignoring the point about the price of produce. I’ve lived/worked/travelled extensively in Europe. Most Britons would refuse to live the way Europeans do.

I have friends in cities like Lyon and Munich - working in professional jobs - who live in relatively modest apartments. In the U.K., people in similar jobs would be expecting a 4-bed detached house with a garden.

Europeans are willing to pay more for good quality produce. Many grow veg on allotments. We need to adjust our expectations and stop blaming Brexit.

Incidentally, those ingredients were already in my veg box amd actually was a lot less faff than doing lasagne and salad.

Where did I say I was going to more than a couple of shops in a daily basis? This was one shopping trip during the weekend on the way back from church.

Sometimes, you make do with what you have. I am not adverse to a bit of marmite and spaghetti served with carrots of that is the only thing left the day before our next vwg box delivery.

Sainsbury’s former CEO Justin King has blamed Brexit

He would;
2018 - A new group called "Business for a People’s Vote", which includes Justin King, former boss of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain... is to be launched as campaigners raise the pressure on politicians.

www.esmmagazine.com/retail/business-figures-call-vote-brexit-terms-sunday-times-67104

Tomatoes in Spain at the moment are plentiful but horrible and bitter. The bad weather has ruined the harvest.

The weather is a major issue we need to act on climate change before this gets worse. How are oil companies making billions still the government (and international politics!) Is unbelievable in this. HOW are they doing nothing

If you're that worried, grow your own veg! Or is that too much work

In my tiny, damp, north-facing London garden? Believe me, we’ve tried; we enjoy gardening and have a veg trug and (in a fit of optimism a few years’ back) have built a raised bed. We can manage pak choi, a few greens, a few carrots, courgettes for a month or so and chillis in our mini greenhouse (because they rely more on heat than light). Hardly enough to feed a family.

We just don’t have the space, the resources or the time (even with me not working FT, which is a rarity among my circle). And, believe me, my other friends and colleagues don’t have enough time or space either. Many don’t even have a garden. So yes, it is too much hard work, for very little pay-off.

😂Brilliant! 😂

I’m in Spain, my weekly food shop for a family of 4 is now 130 euros, it used to be 100. I do have an expensive Diet Coke habit… fully stocked shelves though. I also regularly pop over the French border to shop (can’t get parsnips or French patisserie in Spain!) and don’t recognize the 2€ cucumber thing. You might be comparing the type cucumbers you have in the UK though which aren’t widely grown or consumed here, as opposed to normal cucumbers (you can’t get in England but they’re nobbly and much nicer). Those were about 30 cents each this week in france.

last time I was on SE England, I was surprised to see bags of Xmas carrots for about 30p a kilo! I wondered how it was sustainable to have such cheap veg, obviously it isn’t.