A month before vegetables started flying off the shelves of supermarkets in the UK, a "gobsmacked" farmer warned the country we were facing an unprecedented crisis. Steve Cornwell, whose business supplies salad to chains like Aldi, Asda and the Cooperative was hit with the sudden realisation after he walked into a greenhouse in Morocco.
He had been visiting a site where tomatoes are normally ripe and ready for picking in January and was left shocked to discover that all the vegetables were green. Steve and his wife Morna, who usually source supplies of everything from cucumbers to peppers during the winter, said: "In 50 years in the business it was the worst I’d ever known it".
However, across Southern Europe this year an unseasonal hot spell hit then even more unusual cold temperatures, which has thrown crop production into chaos. The owner of MBJSC Produce in Waltham Abbey, Essex. said: “I was gobsmacked. Any other year you’d see it full of coloured fruit.
