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REUTERS
Fresh fruit and vegetables will become increasingly scarce in Europe, suppliers warn, as the coronavirus pandemic hampers the global movement of produce and of the people needed to gather crops.
Governments are looking at ways to ease any shortage, including “green lanes” to allow fresh produce to move quickly across EU borders, recruiting a “shadow army” of harvesters and loosening travel rules for migrant workers, Reuters said.
While Europe’s supermarkets say they are still getting most produce, supply pressures are building at source, including in Africa, a key provider of fresh goods, and within Europe.
Stores that are already dealing with hoarding by customers may struggle to keep shelves stocked.
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In Kenya, a major supplier of green beans and peas to Europe, half of the workers in the sector have been sent home on mandatory leave because of the industry’s inability to ship orders, even as demand from European retailers surge.
“Their (European) stocks are being depleted by the day,” said Okisegere Ojepat, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya which groups over 200 growers and exporters.
Shipments from another key supplier, South Africa, are becoming more challenging with the country set to begin a 21-day lockdown this week.
“We were in reasonably good shape until earlier this week but now things are becoming very difficult,” said Hans Muylaert-Gelein, Managing Director at Fruits Unlimited, a South Africa-based company that exports fruits and vegetables to the UK.
“More and more flights are being grounded so I expect there are going to be big disruptions.”
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Those planes that are flying are charging more. Operators have tripled the price per kilo of produce to US$3 in the past two weeks, said Hosea Machuki, head of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya representing 117 growers and exporters.
Western supply chains are buckling as problems ranging from a shortage of truck drivers to restrictions on seafarers hit the smooth flow of goods, freight logistics operators say.
Even longer-lasting produce like citrus fruit, which is normally transported by sea, could be stranded because of the shortage of containers linked to China’s shutdown, said Muylaert-Gelein.
“Oranges and lemons, the old ambassadors of Vitamin C, are in high demand. Also roots, carrots, cabbages, anything that has health properties people have stocked up on,” he told Reuters.
