Fear growing over supplies of vegetables
Monday 11th January 2010, 8:00PM GMT.
The wintery landscape around Welshpool. By Peter Flemmich
Fears grew today about dwindling supplies of vegetables and farmers in Shropshire admitted they were struggling to deliver milk supplies as the big freeze continued to hit homes and businesses hard.
Bosses have warned stocks of produce such as potatoes, sprouts and cabbages have been running low as farmers struggle to get them out of the ground – pushing up prices as a result.
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Stephen Alambritis, chief spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “There is concern that farmers have not been able to bring the harvest in for such items as potatoes, sprouts and cabbages, which reduces the amount available to stores and pushes up prices.
“Supermarkets may be able to hold prices for now but small businesses will have to pass increases on to their customers, which is damaging for business.”
And National Farmers Union Shropshire spokesman Oliver Cartwright said the big freeze was affecting collections of milk from farms in the county and subsequent deliveries to homes.
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scaremonger rubbish so please behave , Milk not a problem, and neither is the supply of vegetables. This weather situation would have to go on for months and our supply from the rest of the world would also have to stop.
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This weather is used as an excuse to hike prices as milk & veg will be in short supply?
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So there could be a shortage of sprouts…..I see no problem with that :)
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Last time I checked, sprouts and cabbage grow on stalks above the ground, so, yes they may be frost hardened but won’t be frozen IN the soil! Someone needs to visit a farm I think, rather than buying sanitised veg from their supermarket. The hardest hit crops will be parsnips and carrots, so expect to see more imported stocks of carrots in particular coming into the UK a little earlier than usual (supermarkets import too many anyway). The supermarkets do have a choice though, they could let the consumer bear the cost of the increased farm gate prices (what I expect they’ll do now that they’ve successfully spun this and similar stories!), or they could do what some of the more ethical veg suppliers are doing – paying a fair price to the growers that reflects what it cost to grow and harvest the produce; and take the bear the price increase themselves (highly unlikely).
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