Supermarket food shortages: Europeans mock UK shoppers with pictures of shelves full of fruit and vegetables

People living in Europe are sharing images contrasting their supermarkets with those in the UK

People living in Europe are sharing pictures of their packed supermarket shelves to lay bare the reality of Britain’s recent food shortages.

British supermarkets have been hit with shortages since the weekend due to adverse weather, transport problems and other factors, with Morrisons admitting to a lack of tomatoes and shoppers reporting difficulties sourcing fresh vegetables in other supermarkets.

Asda announced it will be limiting customers to a maximum of three items such as tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and broccoli in response to the problem.

Aldi confirmed it has also begun rationining fresh produce, a spokesperson.

Meanwhile, Morrisons will also start a ban of more than two items tomorrow, limiting purchases of tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers.

The supermarket said stock at a store in Cheltenham had been affected by “adverse weather conditions” across Spain and Morocco, where it gets some of its supplies from.

However, some experts have pointed the finger at Brexit, with former Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King telling LBC the supermarket sector has been “hurt horribly” by Britain’s departure from the EU.

Posting on Twitter, Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall called on his followers based in mainland European countries to post photos of their supermarket shelves and implied he also blamed Brexit.

He tweeted: “For the sake of balanced fairness can some of our mainland European friends pls post photos of their supermarket food shortages? Tx in advance. #BrexitBenefits”.

Many complied with his request while others also made the comparison independently:

Analysing the factors influencing the shortages, Save British Farming chair Liz Webster said in a video shared today: “The reason that we have food shortages in Britain, and that we don’t have food shortages in Spain – or anywhere else in the European Union – is because of Brexit, and also because of this disastrous Conservative government that has no interest in food production, farming or even food supply.”

Other factors that have contributed to the food shortages include supply chain issues caused by the Covid pandemic, bad weather damaging crops, and soaring energy costs fuelled by Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.