Food suppliers in Shropshire today said that fruit and vegetable prices are rocketing with several household staples in extremely short supply.

The situation has arisen after the bitterly cold winter in Britain and weather problems elsewhere such as torrential rains in Spain which has devastated harvests. Natalie Walker, manager at Greenfields in Telford, said that she had never seen the situation so desperate in her 20-year-career.

Items such as broccoli, mushrooms, oranges and leeks are now twice as expensive as they would be in a normal year with cauliflower prices only just recovering after sky-rocketing last month.

On top of that farmers are now predicting that the asparagus season will be starting late and new potatoes will also be harvested much later this year.

“The cold weather has meant that English produce is all late leaving a significant gap.

“There has also been problems elsewhere such as flooding and cold weather in Spain which means that imports are difficult to come by,” added Natalie.

“There are a lot of key items in very short supply which is driving prices up.

“One of our buyers was at Birmingham market the other day and we would normally just buy mushrooms from one supplier but he had to trawl six to gather enough to maintain our shelves.”

But Natalie said that there are alternatives available which have not fallen victim to the same kind of soaring prices adding that Greenfields had absorbed much of the extra cost for customers..

“There is still plenty of cabbages available and prices have remained stable and we have a good supply of raspberries,” she said.

Experts predict that prices could remain at their current levels until cheaper, British-grown alternatives become available.

It could push food inflation back up after last month’s British Retail Consortium figures revealed grocery prices had climbed by just 1.3per cent to February – the lowest rise in three years.

By Tracey O’Sullivan