Things are not going well for British salad lovers right now. Produce shelves are bare and stores are rationing sales of fresh produce. The government blames bad weather in Spain and Morocco for tomato shortages while television news shows clips of revelers at a Spanish festival awash in tomatoes.
Meanwhile, in historically tone-deaf statement, the British environment secretary has suggested people should “cherish” seasonal foods such as turnips.
“It’s important to make sure that we cherish the specialisms that we have in this country,” Coffey told parliament. “A lot of people would be eating turnips right now rather than thinking necessarily about aspects of lettuce and tomatoes and similar.”
With a love of turnips more commonly associated with the long-suffering manservant Baldrick in Blackadder, Coffey handed her critics the kind of material they could normally only dream of.
It's likely that bad weather is not the real cause of the produce shortages in Britain. Other countries, such as the Netherlands, appear to be awash in produce. More likely, it's the added bureaucracy and energy costs caused by Brexit and the Ukrainian war that are resulting in empty shelves.
In addition to the lack of action to help growers with high energy prices, experts believe the UK’s complex supply chains have equally contributed to the situation, showing room for improvement.
However, Pekka Pesonen, Secretary General of Copa-Cogeca, a European agricultural umbrella organisation, said “tipping the delicate balance of trade channel” should have been avoided.
“The main message to the UK would be that our food supplies are highly integrated, highly complex set of measures all across all operators, all regions, countries and even outside the Union,” Pesonen said. “Disturbing this delicate balance, even if it's a minor change to the supply routes and supply chains, it may have a significant impact through operators that opt for the easier way somewhere else.”
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