Winter blues for salad industry
As British and Dutch salad products disappear from the UK market, Spanish salad producers and those in the Canary Islands are usually in there element, with lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and tomatoes sent to the UK in abundance.
However, due to increasingly cold weather in the main producing areas in both Spain and the Canary Islands and heavy rainfall throughout Spain, the salad bowl’s main fixtures have been in short supply.
And with cooler temperatures predicted to remain, production has slowed down, signalling that there may be problems with volume until Dutch and British fare comes on stream in February.
Lack of availability has put further price pressure on an already expensive import for UK suppliers, as the weakening of sterling against the euro takes its toll on the industry.
17/12/2008