British cauliflower has returned at Tesco following poor weather, which dampened the supply over the festive period.
Over the last six weeks British retailers had to import cauliflower from France and Spain, to sustain the brassica demand over Christmas.
Fortunately, Tesco has taken an extra 500,000 British cauliflowers which have finally been harvested and will be selling them at half the price to manage the surplus crop.
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“Cauliflower is one of the festive vegetables that is extremely popular with Christmas dinner and as a result we order much more for December,” Tesco produce buying manager Sam Miller said.
“Back in November we heard that our suppliers were not going to be able to meet our orders as a result of the crop failure causing severe issues across the whole UK market.”
TH Clements, one of the UK’s biggest brassica growers, said the late Christmas orders harvested this week will leave a large surplus of extra cauliflowers.
“We had some of the worst growing conditions for many years and it’s hit us really hard as we missed out on the big Christmas market,” TH Clements commercial director Richard Mowbray.
The cauliflower season started badly as August and September didn’t see any “cold nights which are important for growth”.
As a result, the crop only flowered in December instead of the end of October and beginning of November – pushing the harvest a month behind schedule.
Mowbray added: “Now we have a large surplus of cauliflowers and some of these would be going to waste had Tesco not stepped in to help.”
British cauliflower at Tesco is now retailing for 49p, instead of the usual 79p to reduce potential food waste.
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