There has been a lot of cold weather in Spain, Morocco and Portugal which has affected the supply of fruit and vegetables but the weather is starting to get back to normal now.
“Things are starting to warm up again, but Spain did have some rain causing humidity which is not good for strawberries,” said Ben Goodchild from Nationwide Produce. “We are starting to see things ease on the supply of strawberries from Spain and Morocco. There are also small volumes of Dutch glasshouse production but it is pricey so it won’t be coming to the UK just yet.”
Wholesale
Nationwide Produce doesn’t supply retail as a rule but will sometimes fill gaps when asked, as the company are mostly non-retail focussed.
“The beauty of wholesale is that it works purely on supply and demand, all soft fruit has been tight the past 4 weeks, but the wholesalers have had produce readily available just at a higher cost. This works both ways as when the supply does increase the prices will come down again to keep an even supply and demand situation.”
Ben said that British retail has been great for the consumption of fruit over the years with per capita levels going up year on year for produce that has to be imported due to being out of season in the UK, and low prices help to keep demand up, but these past weeks have shown that maybe change is needed.
Increasing supply
Strawberry volumes have increased in the last few days, with raspberries potentially a couple of weeks behind and then blackberries and blueberries to follow.
"While volumes are short most fruit will go to the European markets where they traditionally pay more and the UK as a whole won’t see a good supply until the volumes increase. UK outdoor strawberry production won’t really start until May, of course, glasshouse will be earlier, but high input costs are likely to affect the pricing. What is unknown yet is the effect the extended long spell of cold (sub-zero) temperatures is going to have on overwintered plants this year. And we will need to wait until we start flowers coming through to have a better idea."
For more information:
Ben Goodchild
Nationwide Produce
Tel: +44 (0)1386 424800
Email: ben@nationwideproduce.com
www.nationwideproduce.com