Fruit and vegetable alarm in large UK supermarkets.
The British low-cost chain Asda, the country's third largest supermarket, decided to ration some temporarily fresh products: each customer can only buy three tomatoes, three peppers, three cucumbers, three heads of lettuce, three broccoli, three cauliflower and three raspberries each. The same goes for the chain as well Morrison where, starting tomorrow, a maximum of two tomatoes, two cucumbers, two peppers and two heads of lettuce will be available per customer.
Empty shelves, however, for two other major leaders in food distribution such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose. Reports of difficulties coming from all of London and other British cities.
The reasons for the crisis
There are several factors which together have led to influencing the distribution of foodstuffs and to the rationing of some products. First, a lot depended on climate crisis which has affected the countries from which, in this period, the country obtains supplies. Spain e North Africa they have been scourged by bad weather and bad climatic conditions causing great inconvenience and ruining the crops. Another fact that weighs on the crisis is thehigh inflation which in the United Kingdom is just under 9% but on food products it reaches 13,3%. The war in Ukraine then increased i energy costs who have limited the use of greenhouses and fertilizers.
Another element to take into consideration is thehigh cost of products of suppliers; for example, the Spanish producers, given the energy costs, have raised their prices considerably so some English distributors have preferred not to buy anything, not considering the trade sustainable. And so, now, a box of tomatoes costs 14 pounds compared to 8 a few months ago while peppers have gone from 9 pounds to 22. An emergency that hasn't even been able to stop with the local production of fruit and vegetables because this it begins around March and April in Great Britain.
Secondo Bloomberg, other factor to consider is the large shortage of jobs in the sector: the British economy would need about 1,2 million workers that it cannot find.
"I hardships will continue for a few more weeks,” he explains Andrew Opie di British Retail Consortium.
Is Brexit also to blame?
He does not fail to ask himself whether the food crisis is to blame for the food crisis Brexit. While on social networks there are those who accuse the exit from Europe as a determining factor, for experts in the sector the fault must simply be found in the bad climatic conditions. However, it remains certain that some discomfort are influenced by delivery delays and da alcuni Costs additional due from border controls and come on customs duties. Furthermore, Brexit took the UK out of the single European market by changing its import. London has thus stepped up the business of fruit and vegetables from Morocco about 40% in 2022: courgettes increased by 822%, that of strawberries by 459%. Today, about 20-25% of fruit and vegetables imported from abroad by Great Britain arrive from the African country.
