The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has recently called for a national agreement that will enable a joint and proactive response, from different perspectives, to the new climate reality, as evidenced by the nine storms that affected Spain in the first 40 days of the year causing serious damage, especially to the agricultural sector and the implications are now being felt in the United Kingdom.
In 2023 and 2024, similar downpours and floods caused serious damage to regions in the south of the country. At that time, transport disruptions, widespread power outages, and significant economic losses were also recorded. Each new episode intensifies the debate over the need to revise national strategies for combating the effects of climate change and strengthening early warning systems.
According to industry experts The Grocer, strawberries in particular have been in short supply, with gaps on the shelves at Tesco, Lidl, Sainsbury’s and Asda. There are shortages of raspberries at Morrisons and Lidl, as well as a number of major chains seeing problems with avocados and peppers. The empty shelves come after weeks of wet weather across the UK, Spain and North Africa.
The Grocer says farmers in Spain and Morocco have seen ‘catastrophic’ crop losses with floods taking out 40,000 hectares of farmland. There are also fears over exports of new potatoes from Sa Pobla in Mallorca with Britain being a top market.
Approximately 5,0000 tons of baby potatoes are exported from Mallorca to the United Kingdom annually, primarily between March and June. These potatoes, largely cultivated in the Sa Pobla region, constitute a significant portion of early-season imports, with 70% of Spanish potato exports to the UK coming from this area. However, supermarket chains have said there is no need for panic buying and that they are holding sufficient supplies in stock.