There is a huge shortage of spring vegetables like tomatoes and peppers in Europe, partly because of high gas bills and the cold of southern Europe. For example, De Telegraaf warned of empty shelves, and in England it has already happened. There supermarkets provide rations.
And according to British correspondent Lia van Bekhoven, there are several reasons for this. For example, fewer vegetables are grown in greenhouses, partly due to high energy costs. “There’s less greenhouse use, so there’s no point in growing tomatoes, for example,” he says. ‘British importers then moved to warmer countries like Spain and Morocco, but last winter was also much colder there. They can’t fill that hole.’
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Shortages have even increased so much that three UK supermarket chains have introduced a rule that a maximum of three peppers and two bags of lettuce can be purchased per person. Van Bekhoven expects the situation to continue for several weeks, due to the search for alternatives and rising temperatures in England. If they pick themselves up again, British farmers can go about their business without greenhouses.
Brexit
The scourge of Brexit is also at play with the vegetable shortage, as Van Bekhoven knows. “I don’t want to blame everyone, but I remember how a new trade agreement with Morocco was announced a few years ago,” he said. “That’s only possible because the UK is no longer in the EU.”
According to the British side, the British would expect more and better tomatoes from Morocco because of the quantity, as the reputation of Dutch tomatoes – the first to be imported by the UK – is debatable. “So, a new supply line is being worked on for freight transport,” he continued. ‘Tons of tomatoes would be shipped from Tangier to Pool near Dorset every week, but two years later the project had turned into a fantasy.’
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An interesting detail: it is much easier for Moroccan farmers to export to the European Union than to the UK. ‘So once again the UK is behind on Brexit’, concludes Van Bekhoven.
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