Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Asda face a shortage of TWO household staples this winter. Budget supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl could also be impacted with the UK on course for a broccoli and cauliflower shortage over spring.
Growers have blamed weather challenges in UK and Europe, which the Met Office says will become more frequent with climate breakdown. It says: “Observations show a clear warming trend for average UK winter temperature, and this trend is projected to continue in the future due to human induced climate change. This doesn’t mean the UK will no longer see cold spells … however, cold spells are projected to become less frequent and less severe.”
Hannah Croft, an agronomist at the organic vegetable box company Riverford, said there would be “tight periods for broccoli supply later this spring”. She added: “Our Spanish suppliers, who grow much of our winter broccoli, have faced setbacks due to heavy autumn rain, which caused quality issues and delayed planting for spring crops. This has pushed harvest schedules forward, meaning there’s a possibility of a gap in late spring.”
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She said: “UK cauliflowers have faced weather challenges including significant rainfall in autumn, which caused some losses in early crops, while mild temperatures brought winter cauliflowers ahead of schedule.” Brown said: “These crops are holding up well. Spring greens, protected under nets, are on track for harvest from January through April, and will take over as curly kales finish up.”
Guy Barter, the chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticultural Society, said: “I think what happened here is that the plants went in at the usual time but grew mightily in the wet July and September and the very mild autumn, so their natural mechanism of timing flowering by chilling was overridden by their larger-than-usual size, hence flowering now rather than April.”