Our Range
Our Suppliers
Business Support
About us
Our Range
Main Menu
Our Suppliers
Main Menu
Business Support
Main Menu
Work With Us
Wednesday 7th January - Wednesday 14th January
Get the insights you need to plan more effectively and manage your menus with our latest report from the field, brought to you by our expert produce team.
Weather Conditions
Growers across Europe are facing challenging conditions as persistent rain and freezing temperatures disrupt harvesting.
Spain - Prolonged rainfall and cold weather continue to impact crop cycles and quality.
UK - Experiencing a severe cold snap, though conditions are expected to improve soon.
North Africa - Morocco is seeing lower-than-expected temperatures, adding pressure to supply.
Transportation
Ports - While Christmas delays were managed with minimal customer impact, vessel and port congestion persists into the new year. We are monitoring the situation closely.
Road & Rail - Ad hoc challenges including farmer action, customs delays, and late loadings are posing risks to timely deliveries from Europe. We are working with suppliers to minimise disruption.
Salad crops
All salad crops, but particularly lettuce, have been impacted by storms and wet weather across Spain. This has affected the ability of growers to harvest crops, with many having to cease harvesting altogether, which is causing market-wide shortages of key lines.
The weather is also affecting quality, with the storms causing damage to the outer leaves and ribs, as well as some discolouration as the lettuce has been sat in water. There are some concessions in place, including for Baby Red Gem and Iceberg to allow for removal of outer leaves. We will continue to review with suppliers as necessary.
Our geographic spread of suppliers has supported us through the worst of the past few weeks with minimal impact on customers. However, temperatures in Spain are expected to fall in the coming days, which is likely to have a further, detrimental impact on market availability.
We will continue to work with our suppliers to ensure that we minimise the impact on customers.
Berries
A long period of cold and wet weather in Morocco is lowering yields and affecting market-wide availability. This has been further hampered by a slow start to the Spanish season. It is likely to be a few weeks before Spain gets fully into production.
Availability of raspberries is also currently challenging, with weather-related quality problems increasing grade out levels and some transport delays affecting supply.
Blueberries continue to face shipping delays caused by congestion and adverse weather. While these challenges have led to market-wide shortages, we have continued to avoid any major issues.
Broccoli
Poor weather in Spain is creating market-wide challenges for broccoli availability. In many cases, this is stopping any harvesting, which is causing extended delays in loading. This is being exacerbated by public holidays, which is further limiting dispatch.
We are working on contingency plans to try to mitigate anticipated shortages.
Cabbage
Maintaining weight remains challenging and size concessions for red and white cabbage continue. Some oedema-related quality problems persist, but we are working with growers to ensure the best possible product reaches customers.
Carrots
Freezing conditions could create some quality problems for carrots, leading to reduced shelf-life.
We are prioritising stock from straw-covered crops for added frost protection to minimise customer impact.
Cauliflower
There are significant challenges with cauliflower availability caused by the inclement weather conditions. Due to our geographic spread of supply, both in the UK and Spain, we have managed to avoid any major shortages. However, there are some concerns that the current frosts may have a detrimental impact on product quality, so we are maintaining a watching brief on this.
