Iceberg lettuce supply is tight in the UK and reflected in rising wholesale market prices after weeks on promotions at 50p a head and lower at supermarkets. Wholesale prices climbed week-on-week from lows of 360p last week to highs of 650p this week.
According to one industry observer, promotional activity has distorted the market. He told freshinfo: “Iceberg has been on promotion quite aggressively for a large part of the summer. Purely on that basis, it suggests that this could be a strategy driven by suppliers.”
Earlier in the summer the product went into oversupply in the UK. “The good weather increased yields and too many people planted too much this year,” said one industry player. “Speciality lettuce demand is strong and so the market for iceberg was a bit flat. Suppliers were able to export to take some pressure off the domestic market.”
The price discounting at the retailers was necessary, he claims. “And the promotional activity created a demand which also helped take some of the volume out of the market. But the cooler, damp weather now means that the heads are growing smaller and those growers that supply the processors are having to eat into their crops a lot more to be able to supply the same weight.”
Another UK supplier to the retailers said the UK season could now finish early: “Usually we would go through into mid-October, but we are getting cold nights now and iceberg is just not growing in this weather.”
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