![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2023\/02\/GettyImages-1332378327-9d5be54.jpg?quality=90&resize=551%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>What is causing the tomato shortage?<\/h2>\n
Extreme weather conditions, including flooding and cold temperatures, in Morocco \u2013 which provides a quarter of Britain\u2019s tomatoes \u2013 and in southern Spain have delayed ripening and been a major cause of bare shelves in produce aisles this week, resulting in a sharp rise in wholesale prices. Ferries that transport produce have also been cancelled due to storms.<\/p>\n
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesperson says: \u201cWe remain in close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables were predominately caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa where they are produced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey suggested that eating turnips could help fill the gap during fruit and vegetable shortages, as she answered a question in the House of Commons on 23 February. \u201cIt\u2019s important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar.<\/p>\n
Coffey added that she was \u201cconscious that consumers want a year-round choice and that is what our supermarkets, food producers and growers around the world try to satisfy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, accused the minister of a \u201clet them eat turnips\u201d strategy \u2013 a reference to 18th Century French queen Marie Antoinette, who supposedly responded to a bread shortage by saying \u201clet them eat cake\u201d. However, Downing Street has insisted Ms Coffey had simply been \u201csetting out the importance of celebrating the produce that we grow here in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n
How have energy price hikes hit British growers?<\/h2>\n
Soaring energy costs have resulted in a severely reduced supply of UK-grown salad vegetables, as many British farmers shut down their greenhouses this winter. CEO of the British Growers Association Jack Ward explains: \u201cWhat\u2019s also contributed to the problem is, last autumn, growers in the UK would have been putting plants into glasshouses ready for production at this time of year. Because they couldn\u2019t get the prices they needed to cover the costs they were incurring, those plants didn\u2019t get put in, so we\u2019re missing a chunk of British production.\u201d Ward says retailers then looked to Spain and Morocco for tomato supplies, but the scale of production there is struggling to meet current UK demand.<\/p>\n
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 on 22 February, National Farmers Union<\/a> president Minette Batters said farmers have been warning about the risk of shortages for many months, due to high costs as well as supply challenges from Europe. \u201cI called an emergency press conference at the end of last year on the back of the rationing of eggs, saying that if we didn\u2019t act we would be facing rationing in other sectors, and that is exactly what is happening. A lot of that is being driven by the price of gas, which is down but it\u2019s still three times higher than what it was in 2019. So, if you\u2019re growing undercover, which for tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, peppers, they are grown in a closed environment so they can be kept warm, and if you\u2019re facing all those costs and not getting a fair return back from it, you are having to cut your production level.\u201d<\/p>\n Merseyside farmer Olly Harrison, who has his own YouTube channel Olly Blogs Agricontract farmer<\/a>, says the supermarkets\u2019 unwillingness to pay a fair price following energy price hikes has meant many British farmers have simply stopped growing tomatoes. \u201cIt\u2019s not Brexit; it\u2019s not climate change; it\u2019s basically people not wanting to pay enough to keep them on the shelves, and there being too much risk and no profit in it, so everyone has stopped growing it.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/22\/2023\/02\/GettyImages-603285156-db64d8f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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