Fresh food to become more scarce, suppliers warn

FRESH fruit and vegetables are to become increasingly scarce in Europe, suppliers warn, as the coronavirus pandemic hampers the global movement of produce and of the people needed to gather crops.

Governments are looking at ways to ease any shortage, including “green lanes” to allow fresh produce to move quickly across EU borders, recruiting a “shadow army” of harvesters and loosening travel rules for migrant workers.

While Europe’s supermarkets say they are still getting most produce, supply pressures are building at source, including in Africa, a key provider of fresh goods, and within Europe.

In Kenya, a major supplier of green beans and peas to Europe, half of the workers were sent home on mandatory leave because of the industry’s inability to ship orders, even as demand from European retailers surge.

Shipments from another key supplier, South Africa, are becoming more challenging as the country’s 21-day lockdown commenced at midnight.

“We were in reasonably good shape until earlier this week but now things are becoming very difficult,” said Hans Muylaert-Gelein, managing director at Fruits Unlimited, a South Africa-based company that exports fruit and vegetables to the UK. “More and more flights are being grounded, so there will be big disruptions.”

Those planes that are flying are charging more. Operators have tripled the price per/kg of produce to $3 (R52.28) in the past two weeks, said Hosea Machuki, head of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya representing 117 growers and exporters.

Western supply chains are buckling as problems ranging from a shortage of truck drivers to restrictions on seafarers hit the smooth flow of goods, freight logistics operators say.

Even longer-lasting produce like citrus fruit, which is normally transported by sea, could be stranded because of the shortage of containers linked to China’s shutdown, said Muylaert-Gelein.

A shortage of migrant workers also threatens to disrupt production in several top European suppliers including Spain, the biggest exporter of fruit and vegetables in the EU.

About 16 000 Moroccan seasonal workers were to arrive in the Huelva region in Spain to pick strawberries and red fruits under an agreement between the two countries. Less than half made it by March 12, as Morocco closed its borders to passenger traffic, said Abdelmounaïm Madani, head of the Moroccan job promotion agency

Anapec. The lockdown is until April 20. Farmers and unions in Spain said the production, processing and export of fruit and vegetables was still going smoothly, although the state of emergency is restricting people’s access to farms and packing areas.

Absentee rates were as high as 50% in recent days, said agricultural worker union representative Monica Vega.

Philippe Binard, general delegate of Freshfel Europe, which represents Europe’s fresh produce industry, said the main problem was the lack of seasonal workers, especially for labour-intensive crops like strawberries and asparagus.

The European Commission has urged the 27 EU countries to adopt measures to ensure the free flow of freight along “green lanes”, with border crossings lasting no more than 15 minutes. | AP