Love Marmite? You’ll hate this ...there’s a drought at the shops
BREAKFAST has become a little more miserable for Marmite lovers – as a national ‘drought’ leaves many supermarket shelves bare.
Supply of the much loved – and hated – condiment has been hit by the closure of breweries during lockdown, robbing manufacturers of its key ingredient, yeast.
And now a snapshot survey, carried out by the Daily Mail, has found that the spread remains scarce in many online stores.
Marmite was not available in some areas through the Sainsbury’s and Ocado online shops, according to the research.
Other retailers – such as Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose – had limited supplies of the small 250g jars rather than larger pots.
Asda was the only supermarket surveyed which had both the smaller and larger 500g jars.
It comes nearly a year after Unilever, which owns Marmite, temporarily halted all production of the spread except for its small 250g jars.
However, the company said it hopes shelves will be fully re- stocked later this year as the re-opening of pubs and breweries looks to boost beer production. A Unilever spokesman said: ‘We’ve continued to see high demand for Marmite with more people making meals at home during lockdown as well as reduced supply of yeast from the breweries that supply us. ‘As pubs and hospitality begin to open up once more, we expect the full range of jars to be back on supermarket shelves over the coming months.’ The shortage was highlighted on the BBC Good
Food Facebook group by Kelly Richardson who posted: ‘Is anyone else struggling to get Marmite in their part of the country?
‘I know it’s due to the lack of beer making etc but can’t find it in Brighton!’
Lauren Panther responded: ‘Yes in Wiltshire, I resorted to a jar from Amazon.’
Angela Walker, of County Durham, added: ‘Our household was going through a big jar a week.
‘Then all of a sudden I just couldn’t get hold of it in any of our local supermarkets.’