Rationing of fruit & veggies in the UK: The politics and economics behind it

Running short of lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflowers and raspberries, the supermarkets in the UK, such as Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Morrisons, have rationed the sale of vegetables and fruit..

But many wholesalers, importers and retailers have told the BBC the shortages could be due to lower domestic production and more complex supply chains, as well as a price-sensitive market, instead of Brexit...

Veggies aren't profitable. While disrupted supplies from Spain and Morrocco are the immediate reason, another inportant factor is that many British growers prefer not to grow salad vegetables due to high energy, labour and fertiliser costs but low prices that their produce fetches from the UK's highly competetive supermarkets which have to keep prices low in comparison with those in Europe..

Producers in one of the UK's biggest growing regions say that shortgaes could last until May, since growers were delaying planting some crops due to high energy costs..

A representative of these growers said half of them didn't grow last year, and half of them are not growing this year, because they couldn't secure an increased price from the supermarkets to cover their increased input costs...

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