Tomato exporters from the Canary Islands are counting on the cold weather conditions to ease across Europe over the coming days, amid concerns that product quality could be affected by delays to shipments.
Canary Islands tomato producers’ association Fedex said that exporters had experienced a number of problems ensuring that consignments of tomatoes reached customers in the UK, principally in Scotland and Wales, as well as in Germany and France.
In the former case, the group said that there had been many problems reaching clients in Scotland and Wales, especially along secondary roads, while distribution in France and Germany had also been proving problematic.
According to Fedex, there have been signs that conditions are improving on UK roads, while a ship carrying 1,000 tonnes of tomatoes arrived yesterday (11 January) at the Port of Southampton, although it was delayed for 24 hours due to the bad state of the sea.
“Until now, the fruit is still in a good condition, although this situation could change if the problems that are delaying the arrival of the products are not resolved,” said Fedex in a statement.
However, the association said that it was hopeful that the conditions would improve over the coming days and that normality would return to European roads.
