Pearce Duff's Strawberry Blancmange 35g

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Faced with higher costs for glasshouse crops, some retailers chose to rely more heavily this year on sourcing from Spain and north Africa, leaving them more vulnerable to the weather-triggered shortages. Are things worse in the UK than the rest of Europe? One issue is reduced output from British farms. The president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Minette Batters, told the union’s annual conference on Tuesday that “domestic production of salad, including cucumbers and tomatoes, has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1985”. It doesn't take much to persuade regular customers with a car to switch their custom - and I have done just that. Asda's loss, Tesco's gain - and I won't shop at Lidl or Aldi because their ranges are too limited. Supermarkets need to stay on their toes simply because I and many others can and do. But I have no problem with buying own brand stuff if we like it as much as the branded stuff. The NFU is calling for more support to energy-reliant British farmers. At its annual conference, Batters criticised government policy, pointing out that botanical gardens with large glasshouses have received support with their energy bills through the energy relief scheme, while food producers with greenhouses have not.

Sainsbury’s has been importing eggs from Italy since late last year as a result of shortages in British supply. What could be done to help the situation?There is a new Tesco being built, on the edge of town. It prolly won't be any cheaper than sainsburys, but should provide more competition, and thus help keep prices stable or bring them down a bit. It's also on the bus route.

I can only imagine this has had a significant negative effect on the sainsburys store (if repeated uk wide, explains the forthcoming 2000 job losses).

Salad crops including cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce are now most affected. Supplies of aubergines and lemons have also been hit, as have field crops in Spain including broccoli and lettuce. In the UK, frost has damaged production of brassicas, especially cabbage and cauliflower.