The soaring summer temperatures are causing havoc for the UK’s leafy salad growers. In the last week alone a record 18 million lettuces have been sold.
This is unprecedented. In the same week last year UK retailers were topping out at volumes of around 13 million heads of lettuce during this peak demand period for leafy salads.
The UK crop
Dieter Lloyd, spokesperson for the British Leafy Salad Growers said: “While it is great news that leafy salad sales are up around 40% across all retailers, that’s just half the story.
The record temperatures have stopped the UK lettuce crop growing. When the mercury hits 27-30⁰C lettuces can’t grow.
“In all of the major growing areas, from Cupar in Fife, through Preston, Lancs, to Ely in East Anglia and Chichester, Sussex, the hot weather has affected all our growers and we may be seeing some gaps on retailers’ shelves in the next two weeks as the heatwave continues.”
Struggling to meet demand
The pressure of increased demand and hot weather limiting supply means that growers may be turning to other sources of leafy salads to meet demand.
In the summer it is too hot to grow large quantities of lettuce in southern Europe where UK salads are grown in the winter. As a result, shoppers may start seeing lettuce from the USA on the shelves.
Salad leaves are not the only crop to be affected. Most salad items are selling more than normal while crops like Broccoli also stop growing when it gets too hot.
