Is there a world wide shortage of Tomatoes? 1 April 2022 at 8:56AM in Food shopping & groceries 12 replies 2.8K views

Grumpelstiltskin

I have tried 3 supermarkets Aldi, Lidl and a small Asda in the past few days looking for a pack of Salad Tomatoes.

None of them had any, they did have Cherry Tomatoes but much dearer than they were last week.

pumpkin89

There has been bad (for tomatoes) weather in Spain, which is the biggest exporter of tomatoes to the UK.  You'll soon be able to get them again, as retailers switch to supplies from other countries, but the prices will probably be higher due to this shortage.

Farway

pumpkin89 said:

There has been bad (for tomatoes) weather in Spain, which is the biggest exporter of tomatoes to the UK.  You'll soon be able to get them again, as retailers switch to supplies from other countries, but the prices will probably be higher due to this shortage.

Plus the recent increase in energy costs will affect the supplies and costs in future with many growers cutting back or not planting becuse it is not economic, ref radio 4 Farming Today, not resticted to UK growers, Dutch as well

KxMx

I got salad tomatoes today in Asda. 
Didn't appear to be any shortage. 

Thrugelmir

Has been ongoing transport strikes in Spain recently. 

sarah1972

Just had salad tomatoes, vine ones and cherry delivered from Tesco today 

Murphybear

I eat a lot of tomatoes and haven’t had any problems in buying them 

MrsStepford

During lockdown, it was really hard to find organic tomatoes, of any size, fresh or tinned. But no problems getting organic tomatoes from Abel & Cole, ASDA, Milk & More (veg box), Riverford, Sainsbury's, Waitrose. Buy tinned by the case at Costco now. They are pretty easy to grow in a growbag on a terrace/patio, sunny balcony, garden path or greenhouse.

As humans can't digest tomato seeds, they are growing wild by sewage outlets in Kent. This suggests that seed from an actual variety, not F1 hybrids, could be grown at home. 

mikb

MrsStepford said:

This suggests that seed from an actual variety, not F1 hybrids, could be grown at home. 

They can: I'm still running on those grown last year (fresh, then frozen, now into the home-canned) as an experiment. Just over 20Kg of Tomatoes.

These were all from seed saved from Morrisons "Salad Tomatoes" -- variety unknown, started on windowsill, transferred outside into growbags/pots/raised beds.

This year's are already sprouting, waiting for the weather to improve, along with some "Honeydrop" Tomatoes, seed from a yellow-stickered pack of tomatoes ...

Spiv123

As others have said, not worldwide just a mixture of bad weather and strike action as we rely on Spanish supply for these few weeks of the year. Morocco is an alternative but they’re striking too! 

Dutch will come into play in 3-4 weeks to add to the supply pool and relieve the bottleneck. 

tessie_bear

very few in m and s this am i