// Supermarket fruit and veg shortages could last up to a month, warns the UK’s environment secretary Thérèse Coffey
// Coffey urged consumers to switch to turnips and other seasonal veg
Supply shortages on some fresh fruit and vegetables could last up to a month, the UK’s environment secretary has warned.
This comes as supermarkets including Asda, Aldi, Morrisons and Tesco have all introduced purchasing limits on the affected fresh produce.
Thérèse Coffey told parliament on Thursday the supply challenges could take some time to resolve and partly attributed the shortages to a cold spell in southern Spain and north Africa.
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Responding to a question about the empty shelves in supermarkets, Coffey told MPs: “I’m led to believe by my officials, after discussion with industry and retailers, we anticipate this situation will last about another two to four weeks.
“It’s important that we try and make sure we get different sourcing options, and that’s why the [environment] department has already been in discussion with retailers, and why there will be further discussions led by ministers as well.”
The environment secretary urged consumers to switch to turnips and other seasonal vegetables to lessen the pressure on supply shortages.
Coffey blamed a wave of bad weather for the shortages despite MPs highlighting European supermarkets appeared to be fully stocked.
Former Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King blamed Brexit for “horribly hurting” UK supermarkets following the dwindling supply of fruit and vegetables.
“We are uniquely exposed to imports at this time of year. There is a genuine shortage but we did rather bring this problem on ourselves.”
He criticised the government’s lack of support on rising energy bills for farmers which has meant it is not “economically viable to produce under glass this winter”.
As such, industry insiders say big UK supermarkets have relied more heavily on imports from southern Spain and north Africa for produce to avoid the higher costs from heated greenhouses in the UK and Netherlands this year.
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