High Wycombe supermarkets hit by UK tomato shortage

UK supermarkets are facing a shortage of tomatoes after bad weather in Europe and Africa disrupted supplies.

Shoppers across the country have been sharing their frustration on social media after being unable to find tomatoes at their local stores.

This has extended to High Wycombe, with supermarkets running extremely low on vegetable stocks on Wednesday, February 22.

Morrison’s supermarket in Temple End had completely run out of packets of tomatoes. 

Not a tomato to be found in my local @Morrisons supermarket in High Wycombe pic.twitter.com/RbJVtxKu4L

— Craig Ferriman (@CraigFerriman) February 21, 2023

We visited Sainsbury's in Oxford Road and Marks and Spencer in the town to see what vegetable stocks were like there.

Sainsbury's shelves were nearly empty and only had a few packets of tomatoes remaining. 

Marks an Spencer was full of stock, on the other hand. 

There are several reasons why stocks are running low with environmental conditions cited as a key detrimental factor in crop yields across the globe. Around 400,000 tonnes of tomatoes are imported from around the world and these mainly come from Morocco, Spain and the Netherlands.

Growers and suppliers in Morocco have had to contend with cold temperatures, heavy rain, flooding and cancelled ferries over the past three to four weeks – all of which have affected the volume of fruit reaching Britain.

Supplies from Britain’s other major winter source, Spain, have also been badly affected by weather.

Production problems in Morocco began in January with unusually cold night-time temperatures that affected tomato ripening.

These were compounded by ferry cancellations due to bad weather, affecting lorry deliveries.

The shortages are understood to be resulting in industry-wide gaps on shelves in the UK.

Have you struggled to get an any vegetables?