The English are currently facing drastic shortages of fruit and vegetables, prompting British supermarkets to ration purchases.
Could such a situation happen in France? For the time being, neither tomatoes nor peppers are missing from French shelves, journalist Olivier Dauvers, expert in mass distribution, confided to us.
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The English press is teeming with recommendations for a major problem: the lack of fruit and vegetables. With food prices on the order of 16.7%, the English are experiencing in the country of King Charles III. a lack of shelves that the French probably believed were reserved for toilet paper, mustard or oil. All in all, the reason is easy to understand, since it can be traced back to catastrophic climate effects that have weakened the vegetable crops of importing countries such as Morocco and Spain. Snowstorms delayed harvests in Cherifian land, while storms at sea delayed production delivery.
At the same time, Spain has recently been hit by cold weather, which is not conducive to agricultural production. Except that the UK relies on them for food: 80% of vegetables imported across the English Channel grow in the Spanish region of Murcia. Also, in winter, 95% of the tomatoes and 90% of the lettuce consumed in the UK come from Spain or Morocco.
Adding to the effects of climate change are skyrocketing energy prices, which have prevented UK farmers from growing a variety of fruit and vegetables in greenhouses as usual. Lacking the means to heat their facility, some chose to grow some produce while others ceased operations. English farmers warned in the Guardian late last week that apples and pears could be the next victims of shortages; In fact, they only planted a third of the orchards to cover their costs.
Given this observation, French consumers might wonder about possible future fruit and vegetable shortages in France. Not only because French agricultural production is partly based on the operation of greenhouses, but France also relies on Spanish and Moroccan production. In an information report published on February 23, the Senate indicated that Spain was its leading supplier of vegetables, accounting for 33% of imported volumes, or 38% of the total value of imported vegetables. The shelves of imported vegetables are now complemented by Dutch (21%), Belgian and Luxembourgish (19%) and Moroccan (15%) production. The work of the Spanish farmers is also essential for fruit, because the import share is 34.5%.
French supermarkets in times of rationing?
“In France, at least for the foreseeable future, it’s not an issue,” assures journalist Olivier Dauvers, an expert in mass distribution who traverses hypermarkets throughout the year to decipher their marketing strategy and identify new distribution trends. “France is indeed a country that imports Spanish and Moroccan fruit and vegetables, in addition to producing them too, and much more so than the English,” he told ETX Studio. And to conclude with some logic: “We also use greenhouse operation, but the further south you go, the less energy you use. In Spain, too, we use energy to heat the greenhouses.”
To solve this problem, major UK retailers such as Tesco and Aldi have decided to limit the number of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to three packs per person. At Asda, the decision also affects broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce or even raspberries. A distribution principle that recalls the dark hours of history and that the health crisis has revived. “During the health crisis, we rationed flour. But before Covid-19, I don’t remember a time when traders had to ration certain products,” confides Olivier Dauvers. And finally: “We have seen rationing situations, but in a very symbolic way. We rationed sunflower oil for another nine months. Customers could first buy five liters, then two, then one and a half. The so-called “rationing” period lasted between two and three months. Finally, remember that during the mustard shortage, shops decided to only sell pots one at a time at the reception. But these are not just some examples!”.