As Britain entered a third week of vegetable shortages, the government told big supermarket groups to re-examine their relationships with farmers. On Monday, Lidl GB followed market leader Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Aldi in imposing customer purchase limits on tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, claiming that supplies across the supermarket sector were affected by disrupted harvests in southern Europe and North Africa due to unseasonable weather.
British food and farming minister Mark Spencer said he met with executives of Britain's major grocers on Monday to hear what they were doing to alleviate the supply issues: "I have also asked them to look again at how they work with our farmers and how they buy fruit and vegetables, so they can further build our preparedness for these unexpected incidents.”
Greengrocers have 'queues out the door' despite veg crisis
Independent greengrocers which have remained fully stocked despite the ongoing vegetable shortage say they have 'queues out the door', while supermarket shelves are left bare.
One greengrocer said: “We had shortages due to availability and low numbers about three weeks ago and supermarkets were still pumping out vegetables at low prices. It's got to the point where now supermarkets can't buy it at the right price as it's increased so much. It is available; they just won't pay the money for it.”
Source: reuters.com