‘Tomatoes, cucumbers and pears will start vanishing from supermarket shelves’

Britons could soon face shortages of tomatoes, cucumbers and pears as farmers warn that the UK is ‘sleepwalking’ into a food supply crisis amid soaring fuel, fertiliser and feed costs.

Ahead of an emergency press conference today, the National Farmers Union (NFU) said the Government needed to step in to assist primary producers under severe strain from rising costs, with fertiliser prices tripling since 2019 and the cost of feed and diesel up by 75 per cent.

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and the coronavirus lockdowns have driven up the price of food, energy and fuel this year. 

The NFU warned yields of energy-intensive crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and pears are likely to hit their lowest level this year since records began in 1985, while milk prices are likely to fall below the cost of production and beef farmers consider reducing the number of cows they breed.

Union president Minette Batters told the BBC that egg shortages caused by Britain’s worst ever outbreak of bird flu and the culling of huge numbers of hens ‘could just be the start’.  

Britons could soon face shortages of tomatoes, cucumbers and pears as farmers warn that the UK is ‘sleepwalking’ into a food supply crisis amid soaring fuel, fertiliser and feed costs (pictured, a shopper at a Sainbury’s supermarket)

Union president Minette Batters told the BBC that egg shortages caused by Britain’s worst ever outbreak of bird flu and the culling of huge numbers of hens ‘could just be the start’ (pictured, a shopper buying eggs in a Lidl supermarket)

‘Shoppers up and down the country have for decades had a guaranteed supply of high-quality affordable food produced to some of the highest animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards in the world,’ she said.

‘But British food is under threat… at a time when global volatility is threatening the stability of the world’s food production, food security and energy security. I fear the country is sleepwalking into further food supply crises, with the future of British fruit and vegetable supplies in trouble.’

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said that retailers were used to managing pressures across their supply chains.

‘Supermarkets source, and will continue to source, the vast majority of their food from the UK and know they need to pay a sustainable price to farmers,’ he told the broadcaster.

NFU chief Minette Batters said: ‘Shoppers up and down the country have for decades had a guaranteed supply of high-quality affordable food produced to some of the highest animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards in the world’

Some supermarkets recently ran out of eggs, while others have rationed supply due to the knock-on effects of bird flu (pictured, empty egg shelves in a Lidl store in Loughborough, Leicestershire on November 17)

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) insists that Britain has a high degree of food security which is ‘built on supply from diverse sources’, including strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes.

It comes after multiple supermarket giants introduced a temporary buying limit of eggs per customer as a precautionary measure amid the impact on supply of rising costs and bird flu. 

The rate of food price inflation is expected to reach a peak year-on-year of between 17 per cent and 19 per cent in early 2023, the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) earlier announced.

This is up from its previous forecast of a peak of between 14 per cent and 16 per cent.

It comes after MPs warned that free range eggs will run out of stock by March as Britain’s poultry industry is hit by the worst avian influenza outbreak on record. 

The essential food item could see production lines severely impacted until Christmas next year, with reports of some supermarkets already rationing egg boxes. 

Britain’s health chiefs have already culled almost four million birds this year and on November 7 ordered the lockdown of all kept birds in a bid to stall the spread. But once hens have been indoors for 16 weeks, the eggs they produce can no longer be marked as ‘free range’. 

It means that, in England and Wales, free range sellers would have to change their labels on February 27, branding them ‘barn eggs’ instead. 

Cat Smith, Labour MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, told a debate in Westminster Hall: ‘It’s likely that we will breach that 16-week grace period at the moment because of the state of the influenza outbreak.

‘And I’m very aware a lot of producers are now going to have additional costs in terms of rebranding their products which will no longer be free range at the end of this process.’

Once one case is confirmed on a farm, the entire flock must be culled, with businesses losing hundreds or thousands of birds at a time.

Dr Neil Hudson, Tory MP for Penrith and The Border, compared the current situation to the foot and mouth crisis of the early 2000s, when he was working as vet.

He said: ‘I saw things then that I never want to witness again in my lifetime and I think people on the frontline are seeing similar things.

‘At what point will the Government act to say we are in exceptional market conditions?

Industry chiefs said the outbreak is the worst they had ever seen (pictured, dead turkeys are loaded onto a JCB at Redgrave Park Farm, Suffolk, following an outbreak of bird flu)

‘There are discussions at EU level that actually if the state vets say they need to be kept indoors then the free range status can be carried on longer. So I think the UK needs to be cognizant of that and make preparations to make sure our farmers are on a level playing field.’

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), however, has down played the influenza’s impact on the egg industry. 

Defra minister Mark Spencer, MP for Sherwood, admitted there was a ‘tightening’ of the egg sector but said other external factors were at play, insisting the UK supply chain was ‘resilient’.

He added: ‘We have 38million laying hens across the country and avian flu is not having an impact on the overall supply with only 2 percent of the national flock having died or been culled due to avian flu.

‘The disruption to the supply of eggs we’ve seen recently is mainly due to commercial decisions businesses are taking as a result of rising costs of feed and energy over the past year mainly caused by Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.’