Food shortage: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Lidl and Morrisons warn salad will not be on the menu for ‘a few weeks’
Brits are being advised to avoid salads for the next “few weeks” as supermarkets have kept restrictions in place on tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce.
Reports of adverse weather conditions in the Mediterranean has forced Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons and Lidl into restricting the sale of produce.
This comes after social media users took to Twitter to share pictures of empty grocery shelves in supermarkets, with many outlets implementing restrictions from the 21 February.
Chains such as Pizza Express and McDonald’s said they had not been affected by shortages, while other Twitter users on the European continent have taken to social media to show there’s less of a problem.
Food and Farming Minister Mark Spencer told City A.M: “Shoppers need to know that our food supply chain is extremely resilient, as we saw during Covid-19, with our retailers and farmers working hard day-in-day-out to keep the nation fed.
“I spoke to retailers [on Monday] to hear from them direct about the important work they’re doing to respond to and alleviate the current short term 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, and welcome their commitment to working with Government and farmers on longer term solutions.”
When asked what restrictions are in place, both Sainsbury’s and Morrisons directed City PM to a statement from the British Retail Consortium’s director of food & sustainability, Andrew Opie, who they said they fully supported.
“Difficult weather conditions in the South of Europe and Northern Africa have disrupted harvest for some fruit and vegetables including tomatoes and peppers.
“While disruption is expected to last a few weeks, supermarkets are adept at managing supply chain issues and are working with farmers to ensure that customers are able to access a wide range of fresh produce.
“In the meantime, some stores are introducing temporary limits on the number of products customers can buy to ensure availability for everyone.”
Asda told City PM it has limits on four fresh produce lines out of the hundreds it has across its stores. Echoing the BRC’s stance about supply chain problems, it said it implemented product limits last Monday.
Customers can pick up a maximum of three items, out of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce, with the chain having no plans to expand this to other lines.
An Asda spokesperson said: “Like other supermarkets, we are experiencing sourcing challenges on some products that are grown in southern Spain and north Africa, We have introduced a temporary limit of three of each product on a very small number of fruit and vegetable lines, so customers can pick up the products they are looking for.”
Tesco declined to comment on the restrictions for produce, but said it had experienced supply chain issues on fresh produce such as tomatoes.
It has also introduced a limit of three items per customer, but stressed that a lack of availability in any one specific store does not represent a national picture, including for online shopping, which is determined by the local shop.
Lidl said it had seen a sharp increase in demand due to limits on other retailers, so now it had been forced into restrictions itself.
The chain said in a statement, that “as advised to our customers through signage in our stores last week, adverse weather conditions in Spain and Morocco have recently impacted the availability of certain salad items across the supermarket sector.
“Whilst we still have good availability across the majority of our stores, due to a recent increase in demand we have taken the decision to temporarily limit the purchase of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers to three items per person.
“This will help to ensure that all of our customers have access to the products they need.”
Meanwhile, Iceland executive chairman Richard Walker said he expects the current fruit and vegetable shortage to be “back to normal in a couple of weeks” and asked customers to “bear with us, we’re trying our best”.
After the BRC and supermarkets placed restrictions on fresh produce, some social media users have taken to Twitter to claim it has nothing to do with supply chain issues and adverse weather conditions.
In Germany, France, Hungary and Spain, Tweeters posted pictures of supermarket shelves full of fresh produce. One user shared a picture of Kaufland Supermarket in Berlin of stacked shelves, saying the claim it was due to supply chains was “strange”.
Denis Lakey and a user under the handle @santebonviveur shared a pictures of their local German supermarkets, saying shortages in the UK were actually down to Brexit.
UK comedian Hal Cruttenden asked one journalist, “can you explain why there aren’t EU wide shortages?”, saying it would be front page news if there was.
The BRC have been asked for comment.