Supermarket chiefs summoned for fruit and veg crisis talks

Defra farming minister Mark Spencer will hold crisis talks with food and farming industry leaders over shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables on UK supermarket shelves.

Mr Spencer was expected to summon supermarket chiefs later on Monday (27 February) to ask about the steps they are taking to get their shelves restocked.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, the minister said: “The current situation – caused by recent poor weather in North Africa – shows how dependent we can be on certain trade routes for some types of food.

See also: Retailers blamed as supermarket shelves empty again

“I know families expect the fresh produce they need to be on the shelves when they go in for their weekly shop. That is why I am calling in supermarket chiefs to find out what they are doing to get shelves stocked again and to outline how we can avoid a repeat of this.”

Defra secretary Therese Coffey has warned that the shortages could last a month after four major UK retailers – Aldi, Asda, Morrisons and Tesco – started limiting the number of certain items of fresh produce shoppers can buy. They have all blamed poor harvests in Spain and Africa for the shortages.

However, British farmers have taken to Twitter to accuse retailers of lying about the real reasons behind the shortages.

Farmers say other significant factors are contributing to the food shortages, including supermarkets’ failure to pay them a fair price for their products in line with their rising input and energy costs, and the fallout from Brexit.

Guy Singh-Watson, the founder of Riverford, the organic veg box business, has recorded a video from a Tesco store in Budapest, Hungary with shelves full of tomatoes, saying the UK is the “customer of last resort as we’re such a pain in the a**e to deal with”.

Lincolnshire arable farmer Andrew Ward uploaded a video taken in his local Morrisons store in Lincoln where carrots are being sold in a “prices locked low” promotion at 30p for 500g.

“Supermarkets need to get away from trying to get their food as low as possible in price because all that means is they start negotiating with their producers at a very low price,” said Mr Ward. “Surely home-grown, local food and making sure the farmer actually manages to make a profit is more important than locking prices low.”

Others have uploaded photos on Twitter of supermarket shelves in war-torn Ukraine bursting with fresh produce.