Crop update
Posted on 16th February 2023 at 11:55
Please read on to find information regarding the current shortage of fresh produce and the exceptionally high prices. Whilst working within this trade we have never seen such high prices across such a broad range of products for such a prolonged period of time! This includes peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, cucumber, lettuce, broccoli, cauli and onions.
What is causing the high prices and shortages?
It’s the perfect storm of terrible growing weather and, of course, inflation. It started with the heat wave/drought this summer throughout Europe. Then we had a very mild Autumn and then we were plunged into a deep freeze. Spain recording temps nearly twice as cold as the UK in the depths of winter. Spain is our main source of fresh produce in winter by far. Unfortunately they have gone straight from a red-hot summer to a freezing cold winter with no autumn in between. All crops will suffer, even protected crops, with such a large, fast drop in temperature. All this has led to a major reduction in yields, reduction in size and quality issues. Although this refers to Spain it is not the only country suffering from the adverse weather, we are seeing the same issues throughout Europe.
After the warmest summer on record in the UK, we suffered a cold snap in December that saw temperatures countrywide dip as low as -8C for a prolonged period. This caused frost damage to various crops such as carrots, parsnips, cabbage and over-wintered cauliflower resulting in many fields being written off. We are about to see serious shortages and price hikes on these lines in the coming weeks and months.
With regards to food-service and wholesale, poor availability will continue although hopefully, we’ll start to see a reduction in the exceptionally high prices we are experiencing now. Although we hope to see the prices come down we are not expecting to see normal levels for the rest of this season. We are happy to recommend alternative products and will be keeping all our customers up to date with prices week to week on our whatsapp group. If you are not yet on there please let us know and we will add you on.
We are also now seeing supermarkets suffer from major shortages which is expected to get worse over the coming months due to the retailers locked into a price war and reluctant to move on prices forcing shortages on their shelves.
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