Tomato catch-up

Phew - what a relief! After all that palaverA lot of unnecessary trouble or activity. , the tomato had finally reached a supermarket shelf. There had been anxious moments along the way: it could have been squashed any number of times, or delayed on its journey so long that it began to rot. But here it was, ripe and tasty, just waiting for a shopper to pick it up.

Its life had begun as a tiny plant grown from seed in the Netherlands. When it was four weeks old, it was taken by lorry and ship to England, where it was replanted. Its new home was huge - a greenhouse the size of eight football pitches.

The greenhouse was heated to a temperature that was just right: 25C during the day and 18C at night. The plant was placed in a small box of soil and fed with water and nutrients. A string was attached to the ceiling so that the vine could climb it.

After a few weeks, the plant began to flower. Bees pollinatedTaking pollen from one plant to another so new seeds can be produced. it, and the baby tomato started to grow. Two months later it was ready to harvest.

A human picker placed it in a crate, which was taken by a driverless mini-tractor to the packing area. There it was checked for quality and put in a plastic box. Finally, it was taken in a refrigerated lorry to a distribution centre and on to the supermarket.    

But things do not go to plan for every tomato. And now Britain's biggest supermarkets are rationing how many tomatoes customers can buy.

Because steep energy prices made greenhouses far more expensive than usual to heat, many British farmers decided in the autumn to reduce their crops.

That made the shops more dependent on imported tomatoes. And since northern European suppliers like the Netherlands were also hit by high energy costs, countries with warmer climates were more important than ever. Chief among these were Spain and Morocco.

Unfortunately, both have been hit by bad weather, with mild winter temperatures giving way to a severe cold snap. On top of that, storms made it difficult for ships carrying tomatoes to sail.  

Yet other European countries seem to have plenty of tomatoes in their shops. And according to Guy Singh-Watson, who runs the Riverford organic farm in Devon, the difference is BrexitThe UK's departure from the European Union. . Because exporting to Britain from the EUEuropean Union. An economic and political union of 27 countries. involves expensive, time-consuming paperwork, "We are a customer of last resort... we're such a pain to deal with."¹

In countries that are still in the EU, growers have received €500m (£438m) in support. Meanwhile, British ones have been left out of the UK government's scheme to subsidise energy for businesses.

But according to Merseyside farmer Olly Harrison, the main problem lies elsewhere. Because supermarkets pay too little and their customers are used to unrealistically low prices, many British growers are not planting tomatoes:

"It's not Brexit; it's not climate change; it's basically people not wanting to pay enough to keep them on the shelves, and there being too much risk and no profit."²

Yes: The resulting paperwork for imports from the EU puts off many suppliers, and has left Britain more dependent on Morocco, with all the resulting problems of transporting tomatoes from Africa.

No: The fundamental problem is the war in the Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis, which has made glasshouses so expensive to heat. Bad weather in Spain and Morocco has made things worse.

Or... We have all been spoilt by being able to buy our food cheaply from all over the world. The current problems should be a wake-up call to buy locally and pay more so that farmers are supported.