Severe weather conditions in regions of continental Europe since December have led to significantly reduced yields for local vegetable farmers and a shortage of supply for retail and food processing firms in the UK and Ireland.

Co Down salad processor Willowbrook Foods sources lettuce from the Murcia region of Spain from October onwards.

“For the past two months, the region has had catastrophic natural extremes of climate to deal with, resulting in severe shortages and farmers facing 80% irreparable crop damage,” Willowbrook Foods managing director John McCann said after visiting the region.

The issues began with a severe drought in the Autumn. Following this, heavy rains led to floods and there have been hard frosts also.

Crop losses

“Mud has washed over level fields with crop, and those fields due to be planted have become rivers of mud. The average Murcia temperatures in mid-January should be 16°C during the day and 8°C at night, but these have plunged to -2°C at night and 2°C some days. Rain has turned to sleet and snow in many areas, causing further flooding,” McCann said.

He said that the situation could continue for another six weeks and that last week his business had a 70% shortage of salad leaves for processing.

“The crops are 80% unusable and with up to four weeks of planting missed and little or no growth happening, a disaster is unfolding. What happens next will depend on the temperatures over the coming weeks,” McCann added.

Extreme weather in Europe leads to vegetable shortage

Extreme weather conditions in parts of Europe have reduced the supply of vegetables for the retail and food service sectors in the UK and Ireland.