shortage of fresh vegetables in supermarkets

[roofman]

 

[DAPPH]

I worked on a smallholding, evenings after school (1970s).
We used to cut lettuce 40 weeks of the year, most years.
This was in Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, the plants were started in an unheated poly tunnel and then grown outdoors.
Careful choice of which variant of lettuce.
In the summer season, tomatoes and cucumbers in unheated poly tunnels.

Looking at Gurgle Maps, the land today is no longer in cultivation, part garden, part wasteland, certainly not producing any foodstuffs.
Fields that were growing foodstuffs then, are now housing or Industrial estates.

Also good luck hiring schoolchildren to work as Agricultural Labourers today!

There is a tremendous amount of work being researched to grow and weed by CNC machinery and pumped hydroponic nutrients .. The initial cost may be a bit steep but after six or seven years it's almost paid for itself . This bleat about paying wages led to importing cheap workers who bugered off home when covid & recessin struck .
Mechanize with electronic controls and really get things cheap they work 24 /7 and don't do sickies , strikes or holidays. .

 

[gaz1]

why import cheap workers pay better wages here then you might get a workforce to do it

dont expect people on the dole to do the same thing its a paying job so pay them properly

unless you put a tax on foreign imports uk produce will never compete with it

sooner or later your 10.00 willl get droped as they will; be mre willing to do your job for less then your back to the 5.00 and slaving away for less money it will get there or the wages will be even less than 5.00

we will become the third world work force

 

[DAPPH]

GVMS was down for over a week which has caused havoc with transport.
Lot's of European hauliers don't want to come here any more because of huge queues and delays.
The Ukraine war is really starting to bite with food suppliers now. It's incredible how much sunflower oil is used in all sorts of foods. Even tomato soup!

What is the cause of the delays this end or across the channel tunnel &down in to Spain ?
Are there delays within the Dutch / British green road that was set up & running before Brexit ?

 

[Other Daniel]

why import cheap workers pay better wages here then you might get a workforce to do it

dont expect people on the dole to do the same thing its a paying job so pay them properly

unless you put a tax on foreign imports uk produce will never compete with it

sooner or later your 10.00 willl get droped as they will; be mre willing to do your job for less then your back to the 5.00 and slaving away for less money it will get there or the wages will be even less than 5.00

we will become the third world work force

Are you willing to pay more for your vegetables ?

 

[premmington]

Not fruit and veg.

But of late I been struggling to buy "tins of sardines" in tomato sauce.

I have noted gaps on the shelves at Lidls and Morrisons of certain things.

 

[Hitch]

Gloucester Services was well stocked with fruit and veg this afternoon.
Why anyone would want to buy a Cauliflower at a motorway services though is a mystery to me!

 

[DAPPH]

Are you willing to pay more for your vegetables ?

No ...... I still grow the vast majority my own veg , we were exceedingly poor when I was young ( 1950's) and only ate what was in season in our garden veg wise , same with our fruits of apples , pears , plums , raspberries , strawberries and goosegogs.

You can easily grow a cauli & a cabbage for each week of the year , leeks are now almost a 365 veg , my perennial kale ( Chou d'Au Benton (SP? ) is 365 days a year veg .
Our carrots .... spring forced , first early , early summer ,main crop and over wintering take up a fair space . At the beginning of March I cleared all the carrot beds ( two 15 litre buckets ) peeled then pressure canned 24 litres of them .
We only grow a tiny bit of salad lettuce for we prefer grated Dutch white cabbage on our salad plates instead . I grow almost all of our onions & garlic for the year too. I've also set up a 10 yr old eight crown asparagus bed that is now producing very well.

It was a present indeed to get a stocking with a big Israeli Jaffa orange , a Russett apple and a handful of hazel & wall nuts nuts at the toe end at Christmas .

 

[Keith 66]

Doesnt seem to be too many problems down here yet, I go in our local Coop regularly & sometimes stuff isnt there but next day there will be plenty.
I tend to pop in about 8:30pm & the end of line out of date section is usually crammed with bargains. Often loads of fruit & veg in there, sell by date nearly up but it isnt ripe for gawds sake!
Last week for instance packs of two mangoes, 40p & other stuff, rustled up a thai salad for lunch.
I havent bought chillis for years, 7 varieties this year, spuds, shallots, garlic, beetroot, turnips, radishes & lettuce all planted & under way. Happy days.

 

[DAPPH]

Gloucester Services was well stocked with fruit and veg this afternoon.
Why anyone would want to buy a Cauliflower at a motorway services though is a mystery to me!

In the M&S motorway shops we've often purchased green grocery stuff to either take to the people we were staying with or to bring home for the next days premade freezer meal meal if we'd been out in the caravan for a couple of weeks or more.

 

[DAPPH]

Having the space to grow our own food all boils down to doing what my father used to say , " Do the work now to give yourself options in later life , don't do it ..... then don't complain that you don't have any options."

 

[fizzy]

What is the cause of the delays this end or across the channel tunnel &down in to Spain ?
Are there delays within the Dutch / British green road that was set up & running before Brexit ?

GVMS system down for a week along with severe ferry shortages. Kent turned into a giant lorry park with 20 mile queues.
Hauliers either side of the Channel not wanting to get caught up in it. Fresh food can't cope with these delays.
Of course plenty of other problems. 30000 poor pigs killed in Britain because no more EU workers coming over. Meanwhile people continue to buy Danish Bacon.
I wonder if the GVMS system was hacked by the Russians. HMRC keeping the reasons very quiet. Never known it down for so long.

 

[Kram]

I wonder if the GVMS system was hacked by the Russians. HMRC keeping the reasons very quiet.

British ineptitude. We do not need the Russians to help with our failures.

Prices of veg.. its cheap. There will not be riots if the price of lettuce, onions or cabbage double. Price would have to increase quite a bit before Id bother growing my own and it would likely end up soggy, slug eaten rubbish before time to pick.

 

[Wozzaaah]

We have Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, Dinner.
We don't do Supper, although it does exist.

What? No tiffin?

 

[Wozzaaah]

not just fruit n veg, my local Lidl has lots of empty shelves, no dog food for about 3 weeks now, as my dog was getting a bit thin i decided to visit Ald, all shelves fully stocked on both times i visited, seems like some shops are suffering more than others.

Our dogs have been having tinned cat food mixed in with their food for weeks…. They love it!

 

[gaz1]

Are you willing to pay more for your vegetables ?

well if not willing to pay more lower the taxes then

otherwise uk needs to shut up and stop moaning about the price of everything going up

 

[julianf]

Rees Mogg suggested, back in 2017, that buying oranges from Florida, rather than oranges from Spain [etc] "could potentially reduce people’s food costs by 20 per cent."

So, really, there's no need for queuing on the M20 at all, is there?

 

[fizzy]

Rees Mogg suggested, back in 2017, that buying oranges from Florida, rather than oranges from Spain [etc] "could potentially reduce people’s food costs by 20 per cent."

So, really, there's no need for queuing on the M20 at all, is there?

Have you seen the price of Air and sea freight these days

 

[Richiew]

59p box of plums flown all the way from Chile. Bought at Aldi this week.

 

[DAPPH]

What? No tiffin?

Nor NAFFI breaks