Shoppers have been warned they face more fruit and vegetable shortages, as temperatures in southern Spain soar to unprecedented levels while the UK growing season gets off to a late start because of cold, overcast weather.
Temperatures were expected to reach a new April record of 39C (102F) in parts of Andalucía on Friday amid a long-lasting drought that has affected the production of vegetables in Spain. Córdoba reached a record 38.8C on Thursday.
Spain has been in drought since January last year and this is likely to be the hottest, driest April on record.
Meanwhile, British growers have also been facing weather challenges, particularly the cold start to the spring growing season and a lack of sunlight.
Fresh produce grown in Spain for UK consumption includes tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuces, broccoli and citrus fruit.
Sainsbury’s has warned of further shortages this week. Its chief executive, Simon Roberts, said some problems with fresh produce, such as peppers and eggs, remained.
Waitrose, owned by the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We’re working hard with our suppliers to get our full range [of peppers] back on our shelves and expect stock levels to stabilise in the coming weeks as we move into the UK season.”
The British Retail Consortium has said difficult weather conditions in the south of Europe disrupted the harvest for some fruit and vegetables including peppers, and Morrisons limited customers to two packs of red peppers earlier this week, although plans to lift restrictions on Monday.
Supermarket shelves had big gaps in February, when retailers including Tesco, Aldi, Asda and Morrisons rationed certain products such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. The shortages also pushed prices of fresh fruit and vegetables sharply higher.
Many UK salad crop producers delayed planting fruit and vegetables because the cold weather made them even more reliant on energy for heating and lighting their glasshouses.
Those who did plant crops including cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and aubergines waited until late March to try to avoid soaring energy bills, according to Lee Stiles from the Lea Valley Growers Association.
This pushed back the start of picking to mid-April, when domestic crops have usually started to displace overseas imports, and caused some shortages in domestic supply and led to gaps on supermarket shelves.
The lack of spring sunshine had also had an impact, Stiles said: “Currently crops are looking good yet [their growth is] slightly slower due to the light levels. Light levels have been particularly low this year.”
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He added that each 1% reduction in sunlight equates to a 1% reduction in crop yield.
The association’s members usually produce about three quarters of the UK’s domestic cucumbers (80m) and aubergines (20m), as well as 10% of UK-grown tomatoes.
An industry source says the cold spring had been challenging for those who only grow crops outside, meaning they have had to delay putting some young plants in the ground, as well as insulating other plants to try to speed up their growth.
The National Farmers’ Union’s horticulture and potatoes adviser, Christine McDowell, said: “British growers continue to face significant cost increases, such as energy and labour, and many simply cannot afford to keep producing food with the current returns.”
This article was amended on 29 April 2023. Each year, members of the Lea Valley Growers Association produce about 80m cucumbers and 20m aubergines, not 80m tonnes of cucumbers and 100m tonnes of aubergines as an earlier version said.
