Shortages or less plentiful?

[Canardly]

Tesco are limiting Iceberg lettuces to three a customer due to a 'shortage'. Can't think of the last time I bought three iceberg lettuces at once. Clearly the weather has had an impact on output but are the supermarkets overstating this in order to raise prices? Anyone on the commercial side that can give informed opinion?

[Clare]

Morrisons are limiting access to tasteless green footballs iceberg lettuce and they are also limiting broccoli (by which I think they mean calabrese) to three heads per shopper.

As any 'rationing' usually causes panic buying I think it is a ploy by the DoH to get people to eat their greens.

[fuaran]

Apparently flooding in parts of Spain, where most of these vegetables are grown.

[chrisbainbridge]

Interestingly with Ocado the small 80g bags of spinach are out of stock.  The English big bags are freely available.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I can't remember a previous occasion when the same happened.  Makes a change from buy two get one free, anyway.

[rafletcher]

Well last week our local Tesco had a few English butterheads, and some sweet Gems, plus the (disgusting IMO) Icebergs.  This week there were plenty of USA origin Romaine lettuces, and some Icebergs (also apparently from the USA, 'tho I didn't notice).  No policy posted on purchasing. So, a shortage of the usual Spanish suspects certainly.  Broccoli (Calabrese) was still plentiful.

As Furan says, we import a lot from Murcia (maybe 90%) and they've had a complete growing cycle wiped out by floods and frost. So, a 6 week wait for the next supply coming onstream.

[Jaded]

Buy one iceberg.

Unwrap it.
Slam it base down on the table.
Amaze those standing alongside you by removing the 'trunk' easily.
Throw the whole lot away.

[Cudzoziemiec]

As any 'rationing' usually causes panic buying I think it is a ploy by the DoH to get people to eat their greens.

[Legs]

Since Brexit, we've been at the back of the European vegetable trading queue.  I'd wager Mrs Merkel sleeps on a large pile of gem lettuce, and detonates high explosives in quarries full of broccoli for fun EVERY WEEKEND. 

[hellymedic]

'Let them eat kale'.

[Mr Larrington]

Legs maek me dun a roffle

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I couldn't give a shit about the lack of lettuce as it's still winter and iceberg is pointless (in fact, the field in which I grow my fucks is as barren as the field in which they grow lettuce) but I have had to do some trekking about to get aubergines and tomatoes.

[dim]

it's all BS .... they are just checking the reaction to when we finally Brexit (when imported veg and fruit and meat will cost lots more)

iceburg lettuce that is supplied to the UK is not grown in the ground .... it is grown hydroponically or under cover in green houses .... weather has nothing to do with it

[Andrij]

Is there really a vegetable shortage, or is it just a celery cap?

[rafletcher]

iceburg lettuce that is supplied to the UK is not grown in the ground .... it is grown hydroponically or under cover in green houses .... weather has nothing to do with it

Well maybe in a glorified poly tunnel. And without heating the temperature variation can damage the crop.

[geraldc]

If you have a small business, say a catering business, it's often cheaper to buy your stock from the supermarket than the cash and carry. In a past life, we weren't averse to going in and buying trays of stuff from the supermarkets if it was a big saving, or if they had stock and no one else did.

[LEE]

After Brexit there may well be shortage of other non-seasonal produce, supplied by EU countries.

In some ways this lettuce shortage could be seen as a small issue, hiding a potentially much larger issue.

To coin a common phrase, it's just the start of something bigger.

It's like the first of many.

[Wowbagger]

After Brexit there may well be shortage of other non-seasonal produce, supplied by EU countries.

In some ways this lettuce shortage could be seen as a small issue, hiding a potentially much larger issue.

To coin a common phrase, it's just the start of something bigger.

It's like the first of many.

The tip of the iceberg?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Lettuce not get carried away. Growers will respond to the carrot of higher prices and soon we'll be back on an even kale.

[citoyen]

'Let them eat kale'.

 

[madcow]

Lettuce not get carried away. Growers will respond to the carrot of higher prices and soon we'll be back on an even kale.

Lettuce pray that the shortages actually start to change the eating habits of the nation.
Noticed that Lidl? are now advertising U.K grown kale  as the calabrese shortage deepens.
Eventually the big supermarkets will shift some production back to U.K. and the consumer will be told that kale and purple sprouting broccoli are better for you and the environment than stuff grown in Iberia and trucked in to the U.K.
I think kale has a pretty high iron content IIRC. It is certainly very tolerant of frost, which calabrese isn't.
We all need to start eating according to the seasons of production . Airfreighting beans from Kenya or Peru is not sustainable.

[Pickled Onion]

Is there really a vegetable shortage, or is it just a celery cap?

That is the crunch question.

[caerau]

If you have a small business, say a catering business, it's often cheaper to buy your stock from the supermarket than the cash and carry. In a past life, we weren't averse to going in and buying trays of stuff from the supermarkets if it was a big saving, or if they had stock and no one else did.

This is what the underlying cause (well aside from a lettuce shortage) is from what I heard.  There is a shortage and supermarkets are rationing so that restaurants and such don't just pile in and buy it all at once.


As I pointed out to my wife.  if you stick lettuce seeds in your garden, you will have. lettuce about 3-4 weeks later and lots of it.  It's gardening for kindergarten - they're about the easiest and quickest thing you can grow yourself.
Ah what imagination the nation lacks.

[Wowbagger]

Some 25 or 30 years ago we had a large nursery/market garden nearby where we used, occasionally, to buy produce. I used to natter to the owner. He told me that their main source of income every year was their early-season lettuce. They managed to prepare it for the supermarket much earlier than most growers, so they would ask, and get, a high price.

They aren't there any more. Someone built an enormous Tesco on top of it.

[LEE]

After Brexit there may well be shortage of other non-seasonal produce, supplied by EU countries.

In some ways this lettuce shortage could be seen as a small issue, hiding a potentially much larger issue.

To coin a common phrase, it's just the start of something bigger.

It's like the first of many.

The tip of the iceberg?

No.  It isn't like that*


* It is like that... I was just seeing if we could hold out from using the World's most glaring Lettuce-based pun.