// Food tsar Henry Dimbleby has blamed Britain’s “weird supermarket culture” for shortages of certain vegetables
// British growers have warned that the cold conditions expected this week will further hit supplies in the future as it could reduce the availability of British crops too
Food tsar and Leon founder Henry Dimbleby has blamed the UK’s “weird supermarket culture” for the ongoing shortages of certain vegetables.
Dimbleby said “fixed-price contracts” between supermarkets and suppliers meant that when food is scarce, some producers sell less to the UK and more elsewhere in Europe.
As an example of “market failure”, Dimbleby said UK lettuce prices in supermarkets were kept stable, regardless of supply. This means farmers cannot sell all their produce when they have too much or be properly incentivised to grow more.
“If there’s bad weather across Europe because there’s a scarcity, supermarkets put their prices up – but not in the UK. And therefore, at the margin, the suppliers will supply to France, Germany, Ukraine,” he told The Guardian.
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However, the body that represents supermarkets denied that business was hampered by such contracts.
Several supermarkets, including Tesco, Asda and Morrisons have limited sales of fresh produce in recent weeks.
Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are among those vegetables in scarce supply, largely because of extreme weather affecting harvests in Spain and North Africa.
Shortages are said to have been compounded by high energy prices impacting UK growers, as well as issues with supply chains and the deep freeze set to hit parts of the UK from today could continue to cause shortages, the growers’ organisations warned last night.
The cold conditions expected this week will further hit supplies in the future as it could reduce the availability of British crops too.
The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for large parts of Scotland and northeast England until midnight on Tuesday evening.
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