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Wednesday 22 February 2023

Same story, different emphasis



From the BBC

Aldi joins Asda and Morrisons in fruit and veg limits

Pictures of empty shelves from various supermarkets have been circulating on social media in recent days.

The shortages are largely the result of extreme weather in Spain and north Africa, where floods, snow and hail have affected harvests.


In the Netherlands, NL Times described the same situation as "cold weather". The BBC seems to prefer the word "extreme".

Wim van Geest, the owner of a family business active in the fruit and vegetable trade, confirmed the current shortages. “At this time of year, we are always more dependent on imports. Then the tomatoes come from Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. But it was cold there, so there is much less supply,” he told the newspaper. The weather in Spain has improved since, but it will take a while for the tomatoes to ripen.

Same story, different emphasis and neither is necessarily inaccurate, but when the emphasis is always in one particular direction...

8 comments:

dearieme said...

I loathe it when idle buggers assure us that something "affected"something else without telling us which direction it affected it in.

Sam Vega said...

That's a story about Europe. Why didn't they blame Brexit?

A K Haart said...

dearieme - some of it seems to mean nothing more than 'delayed ripening', some of it seems to be more serious. Hard to say, but that's the BBC.

Sam - too worried about cold weather perhaps, although surely Brexit could be worked into that with a little imagination.

dearieme said...

I am getting close to finishing the last apples from our own trees. Presumably apples from NZ will be coming into season in a month or so?

If I were an enterprising Kiwi orchard owner I might take a punt on growing Egremont Russets for export to the UK. Certainly I'd pay quite a price premium to have some here in the Spring. I mean, Braeburns are a pleasure but Russets are in a different league. I know you can grow them on the South Island because we bought some when we lived there. The old boy who sold them to me said "You might not have heard of these but they are good - the Poms like them." Make of that what you will.

A K Haart said...

dearieme - your apples must keep well. We only eat stewed apples because these days I find them indigestible unless cooked and Mrs H has never been an apple fan. Yet I used to eat anything but Golden Delicious regularly. Something changed internally I suppose.

We inherited an old tree when we moved here, but I'm not sure about the variety. It looks about right for a Bramley. We stew its apples and freeze enough for the two of us in plastic pots.

dearieme said...

"your apples must keep well." Yep. Lane Price Alberts. Our front porch is aka "The Apple Store".

djc said...

Made my last apple cake of the season yesterday. Rhubarb coming up so it will be rhubarb cake from March 'til the Beauty of Bath starts dropping its fruit around August.

A K Haart said...

djc - my rhubarb is coming up too. Only planted it last year but it seems to have survived winter well enough.