Crop Report

Working with a fresh, natural product range means constantly navigating the impact of weather, crop cycles and transport—factors that can shift rapidly and affect both short-term availability and long-term planning. 

Recent weeks have intensified these challenges as unpredictable weather patterns and storm-related transport delays have caused market-wide shortages, empty shelves, and industry-wide pressure on supply.

Recognising how increasingly volatile weather affects growing cycles, our procurement team has been operating a strategic sourcing model, working closely with suppliers to manage availability, broaden our supply base, expand countries of origin and strengthen control throughout the supply chain. 

While the past few weeks have been managed with minimal impact on customers, continued volatility means the next challenge is always approaching, and our focus remains on building solutions that minimise disruption.

Poor weather continues across several key European growing regions, with storms and heavy rainfall disrupting both harvest and transport. This affects quality, availability and logistics, with ferry routes struggling to recover from delays. 

Our supply chain, procurement and technical teams are working continuously to maintain availability and monitor quality as longer transit times and adverse conditions create further challenges. 

Although conditions are expected to improve shortly, the impact on multiple categories will continue for some time due to delayed plantings and weather-related quality issues.

Transport performance should improve as weather stabilises, although delays may continue as backlogs are cleared. Sea freight remains a seasonal risk, with suppliers reporting delayed vessels, but, currently, no impact on availability is expected.

Berries remain very challenging, Despite the reopening of the Gibraltar Straits, delays persist as vehicles queue to enter Spain, where customs teams are working through large backlogs. 

The delays are impacting the fruit, which has been sitting on lorries for extended periods of time, before it even starts the journey to the UK. With the fruit already fragile following the difficult weather conditions, there is a significant amount of grade out, further minimising availability. 

We are expecting market-wide availability issues through the week, but our procurement team has sourced additional stock from other origins to supplement supply. However, it will be very challenging this week.

We are likely to see particular problems over the next week or so on blackberries and raspberries, due to the lack of other viable origins. We will be working with our suppliers to try to minimise the impact on customers.

At the start of the Spanish season, we highlighted likely end of season problems due to low yields. With the additional rains, we are starting to see the market for small lemons tightening, which we expect to become more pronounced as we get towards March. 

To protect supply, we will transition to southern hemisphere lemons around a month earlier than usual.

Brassicas—particularly cauliflower—continue to be impacted by above-average rainfall, though conditions are slowly improving. Concessions remain in place. Savoy cabbage has also been affected by earlier frosts, requiring more leaf removal and resulting in lower finished weights, supported by weight concessions.

Lettuce availability remains under pressure. Iceberg supply has been supported by our wide sourcing base, but Little Gem and Cos remain more challenging.

Heavy rain is causing pinking, butt rot and hail damage, which is also evident in some prepared products. 

Longer term, disrupted plantings may affect March availability, and we will provide updates over the coming weeks.

Courgettes are between growing cycles, reducing availability. Signs of recovery are emerging, but it may take a few more days for supply to stabilise.

Peppers continue to be affected by low temperatures. Yellow and orange peppers remain extremely short, with concessions in place. 

Red and green peppers are available but show increased humidity-related defects.