Supermarket group Sainsbury’s has warned that it will face shortages of fruit and vegetables in the run-up to Christmas.
As France has banned hauliers carrying freight across the Channel, the supermarket has said that certain ingredients could be off the shelves unless the chaos was resolved immediately.
A spokesperson said: “If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit – all of which are imported from the continent at this time of year.”
“We hope the UK and French governments can come to a mutually agreeable solution that prioritises the immediate passage of produce and any other food at the ports.”
Sainsbury’s said: “All products for the Great British Christmas lunch are already in the country and we have plenty of these.
“We are also sourcing everything we can from the UK and looking into alternative transport for product sourced from Europe.
“If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps over the coming days on lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflowers, broccoli and citrus fruit – all of which are imported from the Continent at this time of year.
“We hope the UK and French governments can come to a mutually agreeable solution that prioritises the immediate passage of produce and any other food at the ports.”
France announced the ban in travel amid the new variant of the coronavirus that has been found in the UK. The country said it was suspending passenger and human-handled freight transport from the UK from 11pm GMT for 48 hours.