Food shortages due to 'supermarket culture', says Leon co-founder

The government's nutrient tsar has blamed Britain's "weird supermarket culture" for shortages of definite vegetables.

Henry Dimbleby said "fixed-price contracts" betwixt supermarkets and suppliers meant that erstwhile nutrient is scarce, immoderate producers merchantability little to the UK and much elsewhere successful Europe.

But the assemblage that represents supermarkets denied that concern was hampered by specified contracts.

Several supermarkets person constricted income of caller nutrient successful caller weeks.

Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are among those vegetables successful scarce supply, mostly due to the fact that of utmost upwind affecting harvests successful Spain and North Africa.

As an illustration of "market failure", Mr Dimbleby, who advises the authorities connected nutrient strategy successful England, said UK lettuce prices successful supermarkets were kept stable, careless of whether determination was a shortage oregon implicit supply.

He said this meant farmers could not merchantability each their nutrient erstwhile they had excessively overmuch - oregon beryllium incentivised to turn more.

"If there's atrocious upwind crossed Europe, due to the fact that there's a scarcity, supermarkets enactment their prices up - but not successful the UK. And truthful astatine the margin, the suppliers volition proviso to France, Germany, Ukraine," he told the Guardian newspaper.

But Andrew Opie, manager of nutrient and sustainability astatine the British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents UK supermarkets, said retailers were "pragmatists and recognise they request to wage much erstwhile costs are precocious and merchandise is short".

"They're moving with growers everyday," helium added.

Mr Opie said regularisation for supermarkets successful galore European countries meant retailers determination were "able to, and really required" to walk connected other costs to customers.

"Whereas UK retailers are doing everything they tin to insulate consumers from rapidly rising prices meaning cutting their margins and negotiating connected behalf of customers to support prices arsenic debased arsenic possible," helium added.

He said importing tomatoes and lettuces from overseas during the wintertime allowed supermarkets to connection customers "best worth for money".

Mr Dimbleby, however, said helium recovered the existent concern "frustrating" due to the fact that "everyone is abruptly disquieted astir a spread of vegetables successful February, erstwhile determination are overmuch bigger structural issues".

"There's conscionable this weird supermarket culture," helium said. "A weird competitory dynamic that's emerged successful the UK, and obscurity other successful the satellite has it, and I don't cognize wherefore that is."

He added it was a "very hard 1 for the authorities to solve".

Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU), told the BBC that immoderate producers were connected contracts that could beryllium renegotiated to origin successful higher accumulation costs - but not each of them.

"The information that these contracts successful galore cases are not acceptable for intent and if you're not getting a just instrumentality for what it is costing you, you're going to declaration your business," she said.

"It's wherefore we are seeing galore of the glasshouses crossed the state mothballed. They should beryllium producing precocious prime food, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, to woody with this shortage."

The NFU president said the warfare successful Ukraine had changed the outlook for nutrient security, but added she had been told antecedently by ministers and officials that "food grown connected our onshore is truly not important astatine all, we are a affluent federation and we tin spend to import it".

"I deliberation that is present looking naïve successful the extreme," she said. "We've got immense capableness present to beryllium producing much of our effect and vegetables."

The authorities has been contacted for comment.

He told the Guardian that nutrient shortages would not beryllium resolved until ministers looked astatine what helium outlined successful his nutrient strategy.

The BRC said astatine the clip that a assortment of factors including avian flu and the outgo of accumulation had deed supplies - but immoderate farmers blamed retailers for not paying a just price.