Wot no tomatoes?

Why smallholders are uniquely positioned to weather the supply chain storm. Liz Wright follows the ever-changing issue of food supply.

- Liz Wright

On the day that supermarket shelves were mostly empty of tomatoes, I was walking along Upper Street in Islington to the Garden Press Event. I couldn't fail to notice the abundance of fresh produce in the greengrocers. (In fact, I couldn't fail to notice the greengrocer - they are non-existent in my rural area). Stopping to admire it, the different colours, shapes, and sizes of the tomatoes on offer were breathtaking and I had to buy some even though it was a long walk back to the Tube station! "What about the shortages?" I asked the shop assistant. She looked puzzled. "What shortages?" These tomatoes were mainly from Sicily but this store owner goes into the market to buy regularly and has extensive knowledge of where to get which vegetable in season, out of season, and in many varieties. These can be bought wherever they are available unlike the supermarket which has locked growers into contracts and themselves too, meaning they cannot quickly change to respond to situations such as crop failure. I've spoken to several independents and the consensus was that they could always buy tomatoes, they were probably more expensive than they had been but supply wasn't an issue. They were used to passing price increases - and decreases - on to customers and the consumers accepted this.