UK - Empty Shelves in Grocery Stores
Some major supermarket chains in the United Kingdom have capped the amount of fresh produce customers are permitted to buy due to supply shortages.
The U.K. imports between 90% and 95% of its produce during the winter months, mainly from Morocco and Spain, according to the British Retail Consortium. Those countries have seen bad weather affect crop yields.
While the U.K. typically grows some produce domestically and imports more from the Netherlands at this time of year, producers in both countries have had to cut back on their use of greenhouses because of higher electricity prices, CBS News partner network BBC News reported.
The U.K.’s environment and food secretary, Thérèse Coffey, told members of parliament that Britons should consider eating seasonal items, like turnips, instead of hard-to-get produce like lettuce.
Post-Brexit visa rules also mean some British tomato farmers aren’t able to get permits for laborers to enter the country for the entire growing season.
“What that means to us is I now have to train everybody twice. I have to use my best people to train the new people, so my productivity at the peak of the season is really struggling,” Philip Pearson, the director of development at the U.K.’s largest tomato producer, told The Guardian.
-www.cbsnews.com, 27 February 2023
Arno's Commentary
While Britain will overcome this shortage, as they have in the past, this development shows the disadvantage of not being connected to the larger market of Europe.
It was Britain’s choice to separate from the EU, and it will now be Britain’s choice to carefully and laboriously negotiate tens of thousands of treaties and contracts with Europe. This again shows the detrimental effects of not being connected globally. We repeat, globalism is here to stay, and will advance until the whole world is dominated by one thing in particular—merchandise.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
