UK salad importers should prepare for a tough couple of months, due to the continuing strengthening of the euro.
The Greenery UK’s managing director Martin Brown told FPJ that importing salad essentials, such as peppers and tomatoes, is going to become increasingly expensive for UK salad companies, and prices are going to have to rise as a result.
He said: “Leafy salad and cucumber production in the UK is pretty much self-sufficient, but UK importers bringing in peppers and tomatoes will face difficulties. The UK’s tomato production will only cater for 30-40 per cent of consumer demand, and the rest will have to come from Europe.
“Any dips in supply with the UK cucumber crop will also have to be solved by imports, and the state of the pound is going to be a major concern for salad importers this summer,” added Brown.
The euro currently stands at 1.25 to the pound, and the price of imported product from the euro-zone has gone up by 15 per cent in the last six months.
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