LONDON (Reuters) – The shortage of vegetables, notably tomatoes, facing Britain this winter is unlikely to be resolved for two to four weeks, a minister said on Thursday.

Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told Parliament that importers were working to remedy the difficulties linked to less abundant harvests in southern Europe and South Africa. North by sourcing elsewhere.

Anxious not to incriminate Brexit, the British government justified the difficulties of supplying distributors by unfavorable climatic conditions in the Mediterranean basin, without managing to explain why the other European countries are not affected by such shortages.

“The United Kingdom has a very resilient food supply chain, as has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is well equipped to deal with such a situation”, assured Thérèse Coffey.

(Report by Kylie MacLellan and James Davey, Tangi Salaün, editing by Kate Entringer)

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