A late start to the Spanish raspberry season has left a gap in the market and is sending prices sky high while strawberries also suffer a blip in availability.

“The high summer temperatures in Spain have caused this late start,” said John Grieve of specialist berry importer Lisons. “Some cooler weather would help.”

Some fruit is coming out of Spain and Portugal, reports Grieve, but this is mainly being snapped up at very high prices by the French.

The Summerfruit Company (TSC) is reaching the end of its UK supplies. “We are really at the tail end of the English and Scottish raspberry seasons,” said the TSC’s category manager for sales Scott Woolford. “There is a lull in product with no volumes from Spain coming through yet.”

As a result, TSC is sourcing from Mexico, which has just become available this week, although competition for fruit is tough with the strong US market on Mexico’s doorstep.

Cold weather in Chile means new season fruit is slow to start and it will be at least another 10 days before fruit begins to arrive.

The strawberry situation is equally tricky. “The UK glasshouse season is past its peak and volumes are tailing off,” said Woolford. “These low light levels are really not helping either and in the Netherlands they have the same situation, if not worse, with the weather. Over the past seven days it has been affecting sugar levels too.”

Grieve also reports problems in Italy. “Italy is running short and Australia is even having to fill the gap for some traders on UK markets,” he said.

The problem has been exacerbated by an early finish to the everbearer season which meant an earlier than usual switch into glasshouse production in order to fill demand. And now that glasshouse crops are winding down, suppliers are left with a gap that is hard to fill.

“We are still sourcing mainly UK glasshouse production as well as Dutch, but volumes are way down and some Dutch suppliers are revising their weekly estimates downwards by as much as 50 per cent,” said Woolford.

Traders are awaiting the start of the Israeli season in about a week’s time, to be closely followed by produce from Egypt where there has been a slight increase in plantings. Both have been fortunate with weather and no heavy rains or crop damage have been reported.

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