Greengrocers in south Bristol have spoken out about the tomato shortages impacting stock levels and prices across the UK. The sales of some fruit and vegetables have been limited by most of the country's largest supermarkets, including Asda, Aldi, Morrisons and Tesco.
The shortages - impacting tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and cucumbers - has been put down to “difficult weather conditions” in Europe and Northern Africa”, according to the British Retail Consortium. Harvest is expected to be disrupted for the next few weeks before the country will move into Dutch and UK growing seasons, which will make it easier to stock the shelves.
Smaller grocers have more buying power than the supermarkets, making it marginally easier for them to source fresh produce, but are not able to source as much as they normally would. Ashton Fruit Shop owner, Mike Rudge, said fruit and vegetable shortages are 'something independent retailers have been going through for months'.
Read more: UK tomato shortage leaves empty shelves at Bristol supermarkets
Amid reports of panic buying in some supermarkets around the UK, Mike said: “No need to panic all this stock available at Ashton Fruit Shop. No restrictions on your purchase no scaremongering using words like rationing crisis. My only advice would be to buy just what you need.”
Earlier in the week, Mike said wholesale prices for tomatoes had doubled. Peppers, which were once anything between £10-£15, were £30 a box this week, meaning the shop is currently selling items at cost. “Thank you all for your continued support through these challenging times,” the owner said.
East Street Fruit Market, also in Bedminster, said it has been left with no option but to raise their prices for some items, which have doubled in some cases.
"The owner, who does all of the buying has to get up really early to got to the market to make sure we get stock," Dan said, who’s been working at the fruit shop on East Street for 16 years. Their fresh produce is sourced from Total Produce, which has a Bristol base in the wholesale market in St Phillips.
“Peppers are like the price of gold in terms of what they were costing before,” he added. At the East Street grocer, peppers have doubled in price from 50p to a £1, tomatoes from 99p to £1.60 a pound and raspberries are selling at £2.99 a punnet, so the store only sources six punnets a day.
Dan added that certain legumes, like courgettes and aubergines, are starting to drop in price again as the season changes and harvests are sourced from other countries. Blueberries are cheaper at the moment, grown mostly in North and South America until the British season starts in the summer.
“We’re on £1.49 with cucumbers which is absolutely absurd and they’re not even £1.49 standard cucumbers, it’s got that bad. We don’t want to have to pass this on to customers but there’s only so much you can do to be a business on top of bills and everything else. It is a struggle, it’s not easy at the minute.”
While business at East Street Fruit Market is steady for now, Dan said the harvest issues were the last thing both the shop and the customers needed. “Everybody is watching the way they spend with everything going up and some things you just have to think ‘you know what, I’ll have to go without certain things’ which is crazy when it comes to food.
“People need to eat. It’s putting them into uncomfortable positions where they have to choose unhealthy options that are cheaper because people need to survive.”
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