Salad may be in short supply but there’s plenty of sprouts

ONE of Britain’s biggest supermarkets has warned that ongoing border closures could lead to a looming salad crisis as shoppers were seen queuing at the crack of dawn for food.

Sainsbury’s said, if nothing changed, “we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit”, which are all imported from Europe.

The Government urged calm after pictures on social media showed empty shelves and d long queues at supermarkets in Bristol tol and London.

Grant Shapps, apps, the Transport Secretary, tary, told the BBC that t supply chains were e “robust” and most people would not notice any shortages. ges.

Tesco said ongoing di s - ruption could ould affect supply ly of cauliflowers s and citrus fruit later this week, but said it currently had ad plenty of food for Christmas and encourncouraged customers mers to shop as normal. Waitrose and Sainsbury’s also reassured customers there would be no shortage of Christmas dinner essentials, while a spokesman for the British Retail Consortium said most ingredients of a traditional roast were readily available.

The ongoing disruption at the border has caused fears of shortages and a return to panic buying.

Jack Ward, the chief executive of the British Growers Association, said there should be no issues in getting seasonal fruit and vegetables grown in this country, but shor shortages of l orries cau caused by border iss issues or a lack of st storage space could ca cause problems.

The Government a appealed for calm. A spokesman said: “P “Pe o pl e s hould co continue to shop no normally, including for Christmas dinne ner.”

At a Downing Str Street press conferen ence, Boris Johnson sai said the disruption was affecting only a small pr proportion of food supplies.