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@Bruce - like I keep saying there is definitely a shortage of supply, this could be weather related or it could be import difficulty or both, but it has cirtainly increased costs.
Sainsbury's probably have a contract with a supplier/s at a curtain cost. The supermarkets, like Sainsbury's will be in constant negotiations for new supply and cost.
It could be that your lucky enough to live in an area which Sainsbury's had dedicated a priority for fruit and veg, where a high proportion of customers will have fruit and veg in baskets, so they will use distribution to prioritise your local store - alternatively at a national level Sainsbury's may have decided that selling some items (tomatoes and salad veg) as loss leaders would be beneficial, maintaining stock levels and price for customers to get one up on the competition.
On the news this morning the Britsh Boris Corporation was showing empty shelves. There might be less veg than normal in some shops but the BBC news won’t be happy until they cause a panic. Wonderful!
You don't seem very impressed with BBC news, might it be time to start watching ITV news?
I bet there is loads of tomatoes on ITV news.
I tried a different lunch yesterday, with just a couple of toms - pasta, pinenut and pesto salad. It made me feel ill. Could taste the garlic the rest of the day. Hopefully the local M&S can keep me supplied in cherry toms in spite of BBC induced stockpiling by the great British public.
Very few salad items in my local Morrisons. I did manage to get my Pink Lady apples and a bunch of bananas though !
People will panic buy cucumbers etc and it will go off before they can eat them. I'll just pop to the local greengrocer for mine this week.
Plenty of tomatoes in the local greengrocer. I'm pleased that I don't have to find a new sauce.
Plenty of tomatoes in M&S yesterday, and various sizes and shapes of peppers plus every other sort of vegetable you could possibly want to eat and also kale. Clearly panic buying hasn't reached the home counties yet.
Can't comment on the availability of cucumbers as I can think of no sensible reason why anyone would want to buy one so I didn't look.
I’m pleased that I don’t have to find a new sauce.
👏🏼
Ah it’s just a distraction from the gas bill, DoDMum was a bit surprised at her 800quid gas bill.
Tomatoes are so last year. Turnips are the thing. Great for salads, pizzas, bolognese sauce.
Turnips in salads and on pizzas? Is it even legal?
I did not realise that humans still ate turnips.
Have 2 turnips. Will swop for 10 tomatoes.
I bet you would.
I'm sure we can rely on the wonderful helpers to surge price all the tomatoes in tins and jars as well.
It's just like good old covid times. Spark out a granny on aisle 6 and fill the spare room with tinned tomatoes.
HM minister for turnips.
Didn't know we had one.
Would she substitute turnip for swede in a mash?
Does she have any crispy or stir fried turnip recipes?
She's MP for somewhere in East Anglia which is turnip growing country - turnip taliban.
I reckon she's a plant - no pun intended - by the turnip mafia to promote their product with official gov approval.
You read it here first; STW breaking the hot news from the front line of british agriculture.
Well, I for one am doing my best to mitigate the wider socio-economic impact by having donner meat and cheesy chips with chilli sauce tonight.
Surely cheesy turnips?
Therese Coffey says: 'eat neeps and tatties!'
I'm pretty sure she's an 'extra large donner meat with cheesy chips' kinda gal, myself.
Just look at the state of her, the fat old hag, she's in no position to be giving dietry advice to anyone.
Cougar that article shows how serious screwed we are as a country - pretty much every aspect of just one small part of a industry is in turmoil. From grower's, to distribution, to wholesale, to retail, to the consumer. Each step has had a dramatic hit over the last 12 months.
TBH I’d be on hols in Spain at the in-laws and their mate from Brizzle would be regularly popping in as he was driving a lorry from Bristol to Murcia for a supermarkets fruit and veg,he was doing this weekly.
It wasn’t a big deal, now it’s an ordeal.
This stuff should have been properly addressed in the ‘oven’ ready deal but details.
Still the issue is you’re not ‘believing’ enough in it, you should be ‘seeing’ loads of tomatoes in the isles whilst putting the turnips in your baskets.
So, imagine that you're a veg merchant in Spain and you've a mildly limited supply of produce coming through from your dozens of growers across Andalucia. Today, you can supply those grumpy, entitled British supermarket buyers, involving considerable additional paperwork combined with the possibility of delays at the border crossing en route.
Or, you can simply sell to your French, German, Dutch or Danish buyers, with a wry smile along the way....
I expect that price and profit is the main driver.
update from the coalface/wholesalers
Cherry tomatoes were £6kg last week are now £8.50kg (to the customer cost). Availability is absolutely fine, 1000's of boxes of tomatoes in stock. However the supermarkets not getting their act in gear has driven the rising costs further as demand has been driven to independent shops instead, hence the rise in price.
Unfortunately the way we shop, is now driving the cost, not supply. Supermarkets need to bite the bullet and renegotiate their pricing structures.
There were tomatoes in my local Aldi this morning. Although they didn't have any stock cubes in stock.
Loads in Costco. Cheep too - less than a tenner for a huge tray of I don't know how many kilos.
a worthwhile investment
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Easy-Turnips-Cookbook-Delicious-Recipes/dp/1543272681
Even the turnip book has cherry toms on the cover. They know who's the star.
https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1629027276120530944
In this case British supermarkets aren't getting the produce at all, but it makes you wonder just how much of our current food price inflation is being driven by supermarkets accepting the need to pay more because fewer EU firms are willing to jump through the hoops needed to supply us.
Plenty of toms in Harrogate Aldi this morning so they must be getting their act together. No idea if they'd gone up in price, couldn't be bothered to look.
In this case British supermarkets aren’t getting the produce at all, but it makes you wonder just how much of our current food price inflation is being driven by supermarkets accepting the need to pay more because fewer EU firms are willing to jump through the hoops needed to supply us.
Uk supermarkets can get the produce, but they are unwilling to pass that cost to the consumer and seem more expensive than there competition.
According the staff at my wholesaler, this has lead to increased demand at independent shops which has also driven prices up.
So because the supermarkets aren't buying due to high costs the costs to the consumer are actually worse, at least in the short term. We had similar examples during COVID lockdowns when retailers were selling high demand items at over inflated costs.
I'm having to sell large bell peppers at £1.79 each today due to the fluctuation in costs, and bounce back caused by the supermarkets.
Anyways… if we’re going to start to cherish “our” turnips and other root veg, then we need have a think about where we get them from…
Big fan of winter veg myself (parsnips are the king of the pack, if turnips are the joker).
Not many in our Morrisons, although did get two packs of plum tomatoes. Found two packs of slightly out of date ones in the fridge, so they've gone in the bolognese sauce for my lasagne tonight !
The salad shortage has occurred in the same week Nicola Sturgeon resigned.
Coincidence?
Currently in Alicante and can confirm Spain is awash with tomatoes, nowt to do with the weather..
Our local Asian grocers has kilos of the things.
Bit of a long way to go for tomatoes though.
I've just been down to Morrisons and other than a couple of sorry looking bunches of spring onions, theres no salad in at all. Just a row of empty shelves.
theres no salad in at all
Make your own salad.
I'm having a chippy tea. Theres no salad required for pie, chips, peas and gravy 😀
Horlicks before bedtime?
And grape-nuts for breakfast?
This could sell...
I bypassed the salad isle, not even momentarily concerning myself with its empty shelves, to get to the good stuff... bacon, sausage and black pudding (more northern delicacies for you ernie) for tomorrows breaky. 😀
more northern delicacies for you ernie
The only culinary agreement I can ever recall having with you binners is fish finger sandwiches.
They should indeed be made with cheap white sliced bread and tomato ketchup.
She’s MP for somewhere in East Anglia which is turnip growing country
Sugar beet is the root crop in Suffolk Coastal where the hateful woman is MP.
Bit of a long way to go for tomatoes though.
Not really just a couple of miles.
fossy
Full Member
Not many in our Morrisons, although did get two packs of plum tomatoes. Found two packs of slightly out of date ones in the fridge, so they’ve gone in the bolognese sauce for my lasagne tonight !
So much wrong with this sentence! Tomatoes should never be in the fridge for a start and dates shouldn't come in to it. They are either good to eat however you want or are going rotten.
Tomatoes should never be in the fridge for a start and dates shouldn’t come in to it. They are either good to eat however you want or are going rotten.
Yeah, good one. Like there’s a choice in the current situation 🙄
and anyway Tomatoes should never be in the fridge is nonsense.
There was a bloke standing with a lettuce in his hand looking at the salad vegetables. This was why he was looking confused.
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Yeah, even M&S were out today. Good job I bought a couple of boxes last week and kept them in the fridge. Will last a few more days… then what. ****ing Brexit morons.
Nothing in Tod Lidl at all. Zilch.
and anyway Tomatoes should never be in the fridge is nonsense.
Not so, have a look at this link for more information:
https://www.bhg.com/recipes/how-to/cook-with-fruits-and-vegetables/how-to-store-produce/
Tomatoes should never be in the fridge is nonsense.
I think the reason for this belief is they do lose a bit of their flavour if eaten straight from the fridge. Trick is to get them to room temperature before you eat them..
Oh and Amazon seem to have plenty in stock…
I don’t need to resd a link. I’ve been buying tomatoes for decades and storing them in the fridge. Eating them and enjoying them.
🤷🏻♂️
Toms, peppers and lettuce in local farm shop; no cucumbers.
Hiya,
Full stall at portishead fruit and veg seller.
Have never really purchased fruit and veg from supermarket.
JeZ
I don't like tomatoes.
zip - you don't sell tomato gifts, or tomatoes as gifts, in your gift shop??
What sort of shop do you own?
The tomatoes grown in Morocco and Spain are transported in refrigerated trucks and distribution centres.
Remember the 70s and 80s when stuff came into season? My favourite was sweetcorn.
Anyway, fruit and veg doesn't just pop into existence, this will have been known about for ages.
Just came back from Tesco, no eggs today. Completely empty.
As for tomatoes no problem coz I hardly eat them, well perhaps twice a year. LOL!
However, there are plenty of bananas.
back from Tesco, no eggs today
I believe that unseasonally cold weather in egg export countries has caused some shortages. Things should pick up about Easter.
I believe that unseasonally cold weather in egg export countries has caused some shortages. Things should pick up about Easter.
LOL! We are doomed!
Soon I will be eating preserved vegs only.
Anyway, fruit and veg doesn’t just pop into existence, this will have been known about for ages.
Yep.. I just don’t t get it.
Yes we have no tomatoes, if you have any interest in where your food comes from you should watch Harrys farm
the salad isle
where it’s never frosty 🙂
Good video that. The most relevant stuff starts at 9 mins in.
One of the reasons I rarely shop in a supermarket is the way they treat our farmers. Food is a necessity, crap is dirt cheap (snacks, sweets, salt and sugar laden rubbish) yet proper veg, fruit, salad,nuts etc is dearer in comparison. Luckily we have a proper greengrocer in our small town and a fabulous fruit, veg and salad stall in the nearby village, where the food is a little dearer, but it's fresher, lasts longer and the local growers get paid a decent price.
It's about time the government started hiking up the price of rubbish non-foods (treats) and used that tax to help out the farmers, then lower real food prices, known as healthy options.
Oh and don't get me started on packaging.
Crisis? what crisis? Popped in Tesco Express at lunch and they had a good stock of (Moroccan) cherry toms! plus some very skinny cucumbers! Is life returning to normal already? Lidls later to find out 😊
The local farm shop and a big Tesco today had loads of peppers and tomatoes in stock. What I was more shocked at was the price of their own brand big bag of finest crisp now £1.35
@desperatebicyle tomatoes were rarely imported from Morocco to the UK before this year...
I still can't buy a salad pepper (red/yellow/orange) from the fruit/veg market (wholesale) for less than about £1.40 each. But I can get a pack of 6 large peppers from Booker (Tesco owned wholesalers) for usual price of £4.25 - no tomatoes there though.
Avocados have now doubled in cost - around £1.80, when they were 89p, and that's wholesale prices.
I've had several customers say that they are going to shop at independent shops rather than supermarkets now. But I won't hold my breath, I've lost count of the amount of customers I haven't seen since 2020 who said the same thing....
Anyway, fruit and veg doesn’t just pop into existence, this will have been known about for ages.
Yep.. I just don’t t get it.
It's quite easy to get really - theres shortage, not a famine. British Supermarkets - and its supermarkets specifically, not 'Britain', treat suppliers appallingly. With less to go round than usual producers are in a position choose who they sell to. Which why theres food on the shelves in Ukraine, in my local grocers, but not in Tesco.
all but about 3% of food sales in the UK goes through the major supermarkets and they have the supply line tied up all the way back to the farm in some cases so our food 'security' is pretty much entirely in their hands. But we dont treat the supply of food to be a utility in the same why as water or fuel or even telephones. We don't really regulate it we've just ceded all control to a handful of companies.
Those companies balance their own interests - dividends to share holders and competition with their rivals - and the interests of their customers - making food available at an affordable price. A strategy that leaves the shelves empty seems to show how that equation is balanced.
If one supermarket had a strategy that left its shelves empty while their competitors had ample stock - they'd change their strategy. But if they all do - well they have no reason to, it can only damage them to act - and theres no-one to regulate or license them them to act otherwise.
Thats why Coffey is talking about turnips - I haven't notices mountains of unsold turnips this year or any, or a government initiative to grow/sell/eat turnips for victory - it's because she doesn't want to talk about a lack of government . She can't do anything because the government has given themselves nothing to do.