Flintshire fruit and vegetable supplier says current shortages, result of a ‘perfect storm’

A fruit and vegetable supplier based in Flintshire has warned that the current shortages of fresh produce, leading to empty supermarket shelves, is the result of a “perfect storm.”

Severe weather conditions across the UK and Europe, along with higher fuel costs and labour shortages, have added to the problems that growers are currently battling.

The UK supermarkets are currently experiencing shortages of fresh produce, particularly fruits and vegetables, due to extreme weather conditions in southern Spain and North Africa, disrupting the harvest season.

Asda and Morrisons have started to limit purchases of certain items like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and cucumbers, while other major retailers, such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Lidl, Aldi, Waitrose, and Marks & Spencer, have yet to introduce such restrictions.

Asda’s Queensferry store had some gaps on the shelves on Tuesday, with low supplies of tomatoes and peppers, but it seemed to have escaped the impact as badly as other stores in the UK based on photographs posted on social media yesterday.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, Alan Huson, owner of Huson’s Farm Produce in Hawarden, which supplies produce across the region, commented that the current situation is becoming “very serious.”

He said that the current shortage of fresh produce was caused by a combination of factors, including a lack of fair prices for farmers, a shortage of labour, and the weather conditions in Spain and north Africa.

Alan also noted that items such as cauliflower, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and cucumbers were all in short supply, and he is supplying them for what he is paying for them.

He said “the wholesale price of cauliflower was around 80p before Christmas, while wholesalers are currently asking over £2 per head, a significant increase.”

He added that the current shortages were expected to last for a few weeks until the UK growing season begins, and retailers find alternative sources of supply.

Alan suggested there is lack of support for growers in the UK, compared to other countries, such as Holland, where help is given to growers by way of energy, could be contributing to the shortage of produce at home.

“We are coming to what we call the hungry gap,” said Huson, referring to the time of year when a significant proportion of the old-season English produce is finishing, and the new-season produce hasn’t started yet.”

“The gap is usually made up by the continental stuff, Moroccan, African, and Spanish in particular. Spain, I believe, had really extreme weather for two years now. It’s just unbelievable.”

He said weatherwise, “we’ve had a really bad wet back end and some hard frosts which is destroyed a lot of the English overwintered stuff, root crops like carrots, lots have been lost.”

“It’s just been a perfect storm, I’m just literally waiting for the locusts to come over the horizon.” He added.