Major European fresh produce importers have warned that if the current disruption to air travel caused by last week’s eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland continues, consumers could start to experience shortages of certain items on supermarket shelves.
With volcanic ash causing the cancellation of flights across Europe since Thursday, several leading companies have reported serious problems with supplies from locations such as Africa and Thailand.
UK importer Planet Produce, which sources around 60 per cent of its products by airfreight, told Fruitnet that the disruption had so far had a “massive affect” on its business.
The company’s sales director, Ally Clelland, said: “Our last delivery was on Thursday and since then we’ve had nothing – we’ve got a delivery of figs in Madrid that has arrived from Brazil and we’re trying to work out how to get it here.”
Mr Clelland said deliveries from Thailand and Kenya had been “the most affected” by the events, with products such as greenbeans, mangetout and asparagus among the disrupted category areas.
“There’s no way of shipping by sea from Kenya – even in long-life containers it’s too far away,” he explained.
Mr Clelland warned that shortages of certain products, including mangetout and greenbeans, were likely in UK supermarkets should the disruption continue for the rest of the week.
“No-one’s been able to land supplies since Thursday. There’s probably enough in the system until Wednesday, but after that we will definitely see some shortages.”
Richard Parke-Davies, chief operating officer of Total Worldfresh, told Fruitnet.com that while the volcano's impact had so far been minimal, there may be some disruption to blackberry supplies as Mexican produce was not getting through, although alternative products and routes were being sought.
'The effects on availability of some exotic fruit and vegetables into the UK will be felt if the disruption continues past this week,' he explained. 'However consumers are resolute in using their imagination and finsing alternative products. If the ban continues then growers who rely on the UK marketplace for their airfreighted products will have to find alternative routes to market.'
Similarly, Judy Whittaker of Fresca Group noted that 'no major impact' had been felt by her group with the vast majority of produce transported by road, while some issues arising on Egyptian beans were being 'well covered'.
'Some possible small blips on change of season products (clementines and stonefruit) when we might usually airfreight to fill normal supply gaps but again, we are managing very well and haven't gone short,' she said. 'We have one or two concerns on documentation which usually comes by air, but again, we expect the level of disruption to be fairly low.'
Leading Dutch marketer The Greenery said the air travel ban had disrupted a 'small but significant' proportion of its total fresh produce shipments.
The company confirmed that around five truckloads per day of exported produce – out of a total of 250 per day – were unable to move, with trucks at Schiphol Airport in Holland and London Heathrow in the UK understood to be affected.
Among the products on board those trucks were fresh tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables, all of them due to be shipped via airfreight to customers located in international destinations such as the US and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the group's import arm Hagé International reported a similar problem for certain imported products, with items such as beans, sugar-snap peas, baby asparagus and baby pineapples from a range of sources, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Thailand and southern Africa unable to reach Europe.
'We have certainly been affected by the volcano, but considering how large The Greenery's overall operations are, with airfreighted goods accounting for just 3-4 per cent of our total, the impact is only minor,' said a spokesperson.
