Fruit and vegetable shortages could continue as the UK faces further adverse weather conditions in coming weeks.
According to reporting by the Daily Mail, growers’ organisations warned yesterday (5 March), that the cold conditions expected could further reduce the availability of crops.
Last week, supermarket giants Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Tesco and Lidl imposed purchase limits across produce including tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and peppers as skyrocketing prices and difficult weather conditions in the South of Europe and North of Africa caused wide-spread shortages.
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However, fruit and vegetable aisles could continue to appear empty as the Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for large parts of Scotland and northeast England until midnight on Tuesday evening.
Temperatures are set to fall to -8C in some parts of Scotland, with below freezing temperatures likely to continue through until next week as northern England is set to see snow and ice.
Cucumber Growers’ Association spokesperson, Joe Shepherdson told The Sun: “Plants are going in more each week but harvest is still four weeks away and we have this incoming weather to deal with.”
He said that “cold, dark days delay plants,” adding “you need extra gas to speed them up, which growers are reluctant to do.”
Before the UK was struck with these weather warnings, environment minister Thérèse Coffey said that she hoped the shortages would be a “temporary issue”, however expected the situation to “last about another two to four weeks”.
Environment secretary, George Eustice told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “We’re going to have three or four weeks of this and the supermarkets have got to work to get it right.”
