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United KingdomFaced with shortages, supermarkets are rationing fruits and vegetables
Some UK stores have had to limit the number of tomatoes or peppers each customer can buy, due to a poor harvest disrupting supplies.
In some UK supermarkets, customers can no longer buy the quantity they want of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries. They must be limited to three pieces each.
AFP
No more than three batches of tomatoes, peppers or broccoli: British supermarkets are currently affected by a shortage of certain fruits and vegetables which is causing some stores to ration the number of products per customer.
“Difficult weather conditions in southern Europe and North Africa have disrupted the harvest of some fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes and peppers,” said Andrew Opie, an official with the BRC traders federation. The federation confirmed that some stores in the country have introduced temporary limits on the number of products customers can purchase to ensure availability for everyone.
The disruptions are “expected to last a few weeks”, added Andrew Opie. “Supermarkets are adept at managing supply chain issues and working with farmers to ensure customers can access a wide range of fresh produce.”
Temporary limit
“Like other supermarkets, we are experiencing supply difficulties for certain products grown in southern Spain and North Africa,” a spokesperson for the Asda chain of stores said in a statement. .
“We have introduced a temporary limit of three for each product on a very small number of fruits and vegetables,” he added. The measure targets batches of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries.
Nearly 170 million pounds in subsidies for farmers
Beyond these one-off problems, British farmers warned in December that the United Kingdom was heading straight for a food supply crisis due to soaring costs hitting professionals in the sector.
The government announced at the annual conference of the National Farmers’ Union, the country’s main agricultural union, on Tuesday that more than £168 million in subsidies for British farmers this year to “drive innovation, support food production , improve animal health and welfare and protect the environment”.
These subsidies will be paid in parallel with the establishment of “environmental land management programs”, which are to replace European aid following Brexit, the executive said in a press release.
(AFP)