Don’t panic, but there’s a national salad shortage!

Thankfully chocolate and wine are still in full supply!

Lettuce shortage, salad shortage

by Siam Goorwich |
Published on

If you're trying to eat heathily at the moment, we have some bad news for you: we are in the middle of a national salad shortage.

You may remember that a few weeks ago news hit that there was a courgetted crisis. Well now there's also a shortage of lettuces.

The shortage has been caused by bad weather in Europe - specifically Spain - and has led to major UK supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons to take the extreme action of rationing vegetables such as lettuce and broccoli.

Lettuce shortage, salad shortage
The shortage is due to bad weather in Spain (Credit: Twitter) ©Twitter

Talking about the reason for the shortage, a spokesperson for Spanish exporter federation Fepex explained: "In the south east of Spain, the actual situation is due to a combination of the drought in October and November, heavy rainfall and floods in December and January and snow and freezing conditions earlier this month,

"Together with the ensuing delay in the new planting cycle, these factors, which have been declared a force majeure, will lead to a 30 per cent reduction in overall vegetable volumes, although this varies from product to product."

Lettuce shortage, salad shortage
Tesco are rationing iceberg lettuces (Credit: Twitter) ©Twitter

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Tesco - who have limited customers to three iceberg lettuces each - explained: "Due to bad weather conditions in Spain, we are experiencing some availability issues, but are working with our suppliers to resolve them as quickly as possible.

"To make sure none of our customers miss out, we are asking them to limit the number of iceberg lettuces they buy to three."

Lettuce shortage, salad shortage
(Credit: Twitter) ©Twitter

The shortages haven't just affected the number of veggies you can buy, but also means that the price of them have gone up. One shopper was astounded when she was charged £1.19 for an iceberg lettuce in Lidl.

According to experts, the shortages will probably last until April.

Lettuce shortage, salad shortage
(Credit: Twitter) ©Twitter

Sounds like the perfect excuse to ditch the diet, no?

Are you worried about the national salad shortage? Let us know on Facebook orTwitter

Just so you know, whilst we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this website, we never allow this to influence product selections - read why you should trust us