- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The UK is facing a shortage of tomatoes after supplies at the supermarket were hit by disruption in harvests in regions such as southern Europe and northern Africa.
According to a report by Reuters, warmer weather in these regions that affected the yields was followed by cooler weather which was causing longer growth times.
The UK mostly banks on nations such as Morocco and Spain for supply for tomatoes during winter.
In Morocco, for example, cold weather, heavy rain and floods have posed a challenge to the growers. In Spain, too, the crop yields have been affected by unfavourable weather in the past few weeks.
Besides, heavy downpours have also disrupted transportation, affecting the supply of vegetables to the UK.
Pictures of empty shelves in supermarkets in the UK were circulating on social media recently.
Supermarket Morrisons, for instance, put up signs by the empty shelves in stores across the UK saying, “Availability across our tomato range has been significantly impacted by adverse weather conditions across Spain and Morocco.
“Difficult weather conditions in the South of Europe and Northern Africa have disrupted harvest for some fruit and vegetables including tomatoes,” Andrew Opie, director of food & sustainability at the British Retail Consortium which represents the major supermarket groups, was quoted as saying by Reuters on Monday (20).
“However, supermarkets were adept at managing supply chain issues and are working with farmers to ensure that customers are able to access a wide range of fresh produce,” he added.
