London. “A large wave of frost hit countries such as Spain, France and Italy in early January causing UK grocery store shelves suddenly lacking vegetables. Now luckily, the emergency is over and supplies have been restored, but this has showed us how the country who is preparing to leave the European Union is far from autonomous in terms of produce supply” according Giorgio Mercuri, President Alliance of Agri-Cooperatives, speaking in Berlin at the Fruitlogistica fair. Britain imports approximately 2.9million tonnes of fruit and vegetables from the EU with a value of €3.5 billion euro (Freshfel, 2015), but if Britains turns to the rest of the world the volume will rise to 5.6 million tonnes of produce (3.7 million tonnes of fruit and almost 1.9 million of vegetables) for a total value of over €6.8 billion. Italy, with 167,000 tonness of fruit and vegetables at a value of of €276 million (Freshfel, 2015), ranks fourth among European suppliers and twelfth worldwide. (9Colonne)
