Spanish farmers blame the weather and Brexit for UK salad shortages

theguardian.com:

T he head of Spain’s largest farming association has pointed to Brexit and its impact on transportation, bureaucracy and border controls as the underlying cause of the UK salad crisis, saying there has been no major drop in production among his members.

Alfonso Gálvez – who serves as general secretary of Asaja, which represents farmers in the Murcia region, said he was puzzled by media reports of weather-induced shortages.

“I’ve seen these articles but I don’t understand why they’re talking about shortages here in Spain,” he said. “Things are normal here so far this season so I don’t know if it’s more a problem of UK logistics since the Brexit regulations came into effect. There’s enough produce to supply the market and the vegetable season is happening pretty normally.”

While he acknowledged that rising costs had led to a drop in production for some growers – and frosts had affected some artichoke and lettuce crops – Gálvez said those issues were not serious or widespread enough to have significantly reduced market supplies.

The UK shortages, he suggested, may have more to do with bureaucracy and logistics than the weather.

“The sector adapted to the new [post-Brexit] export protocols set by the UK in coordination with the different ministries that are responsible,” he said. “But there have been logistics and transport problems when it comes to export, such as a shortage of lorry drivers to service the UK market, and the problems we’ve seen with the queues to get into the country through Eurotunnel.”

That, Gálvez added, may have led some export companies or cooperatives to focus more on the continental market than the UK market.

“On top of that, you’ve got the costs of all this bureaucracy and all these waits, which mean that