Easy News: UK supermarkets hit by food shortages

1. 

   For the last few weeks, supermarkets in the UK have been running out of some popular food items. This is called a food shortage.

2. 

   Many different types of fruit and vegetables have become harder for shoppers to find, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, eggs and berries.

3. 

   Some supermarkets put rules in place to limit how many items shoppers could buy. This was to help make it fairer for everyone.

4. 

   There are a few reasons why the UK has been having food shortages.

5. 

   Most of what we eat in Britain is grown in other countries. These are called imports. If there are problems with growing fruit and vegetables in those countries, it means there could be less to send to the UK.

6. 

   One of the reasons the UK gets fruit and veg from other countries is because you need lots of sunny weather to grow them.

7. 

   Spain has a lot of farms, and has had bad weather recently. This ruined a lot of their fruit and vegetables.

8. 

   The rising costs of growing some fruits and vegetables has also had an effect on food supplies. The Netherlands decided to grow less fruit in its greenhouses recently, to save money on electricity costs.

9. 

   The UK has also been hit by the worst-ever outbreak of avian influenza – also known as bird flu. This is a very dangerous virus. During outbreaks, farmers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland must keep all birds indoors.

10. 

    Doing this increases the heating and lighting costs for egg production, which has led to the lowest number of eggs being produced in the UK for 9 years.

11. 

    British farmers say the Government is not giving them enough help to grow food here. They want more help to pay their energy bills.

12. 

    They say if things do not change, Britain will grow even less food in the future, and will need to import even more food from other countries.

13. 

    Some people think that Brexit – when the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU) – has made the food shortages worse.

14. 

    This is because supermarkets in EU countries did not seem to be as badly affected by food shortages.

15. 

    The Government says Brexit does not have anything to do with these food shortages.

16. 

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