THE VEG SHORTAGE WORSENS
As rationing and panic buying spreads, supermarkets even ban online sales
SHOPPERS are to be stopped from bulkbuying iceberg lettuce, broccoli, aubergines, tender heart cabbages and loose courgettes.
The rationing comes amid reports of panic buying in response to a growing fresh produce shortage that has left shelves empty across Britain.
Asda’s customers will not be able to buy more than six of each item at its 525 outlets.
Several supermarkets have also decided to block online sales of many vegetables and salads to ensure they have enough stock for their high street stores.
Extreme weather, including droughts followed by storms, floods and snow, has devastated crops across the Mediterranean farming belt, particularly Spain.
This has caused a shortage of lettuce, broccoli, courgettes and other ingredients, which could
last for months and is driving up prices. The crisis has been exacerbated by restaurants and caterers raiding stores after their wholesale suppliers ran out.
The Daily Mail revealed yesterday how Tesco is limiting customers to buying a maximum of three iceberg lettuces.
Morrisons is also rationing store customers to a maximum of three – two in some places – and three heads of broccoli.
Now Asda is to stop people buying any more than six of five key vegetables. A spokesman said: ‘We have taken the decision so that individual customers are able to get hold of their favourite veg.
‘A run of unusually bad weather has resulted in availability issues … We’re doing everything we can to support our growers and get back up to full supply as quickly as possible.’
Other retailers are considering rationing and the Co-op has asked customers not to bulk-buy.
But yesterday at a Sainsbury’s in Southampton which warned about the low availability of lettuce, customer Wendy Smith, 67, said: ‘The shelves for one type of lettuce only had two left. I think it is people panic-buying.’
Supermarkets are also trying to conserve supplies of vegetables and salad for their bricks-and-mortar branches by removing them from online stores.
A long list of fresh products were ‘not available’ on the Tesco website yesterday – no whole cucumbers, organic and tender stem broccoli, beef tomatoes, aubergines, pak choi or spinach. Many bagged salads were also unavailable. A spokesman said: ‘Our priority is to keep the shelves in stores stocked.
‘If supplies fall below a certain level our systems make sure the products we do have go to the stores ahead of the website.’
Products listed as out of stock on the Morrisons website included bags of iceberg lettuce, wild rocket, and a large Mediterranean salad bowl.
Online yesterday, Sainsbury’s had no iceberg lettuces or aubergines, Waitrose had no iceberg lettuces and Asda had no courgettes or aubergines.
Sainsbury’s said: ‘We take products off our website when we have limited stock to avoid customer disappointment.’
Waitrose said it takes products off the website if availability at the customer’s nearest store is running low.
Spanish exporter federation Fepex has warned European vegetables will be in short supply until at least early April.
Bad weather has cut harvests by an estimated 60 per cent, with production wiped out in the Mediterranean.
In a normal year, Spain ships more than 100,000 tons a month of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.
Ali Capper of the UK’s National Farmers’ Union said: ‘For a reasonable price, there is plenty of homegrown fruit and veg for everyone.’
‘Limiting quantities’