Supermarkets across the country are reportedly set to introduce rations in a bid to avoid running out of stock.
The proposed plans come after shops had to reduce the number of products they sold to each customer during the height of the pandemic when panic-buying affected items such as pasta and toilet roll.
However in another blow to shoppers, suppliers have faced three years of poor harvesting and as a result, it is now being recommended that promotions in stores such as Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, and Asda are removed from basic essentials in order to avoid a similar situation.
This issue has resulted in a knock-on effect on supermarket supply with tinned tomatoes said to be one of the products in high demand, reports The Grocer.
Diego Pariotti, export commercial & marketing director at Conserve Italia, said: “We are basically out of stock on every single line because for the last three years we didn’t have enough to satisfy demand.”
As a result, the brand who owns Cirio, has now advised retailers to remove promotions in the fear that stock may run out before the next harvest in August.
According to Jason Bull, director at Eurostar Commodities, wholesale prices for Italian tomatoes are up by 20% since the previous year and may increase again by up to 50% in the next month.
Italy supplies more than three-quarters of the UK’s tomatoes each year, according to official customs data, which is around ten times more than Spain, the UK's next biggest supplier.
The shortage of Italian tomatoes has contributed to a rise in food fraud in recent months says the grocery website.
One case was brought to the attention of the Italian police in April of this year, where it's claimed they had found over 4,000 tonnes of Petti Passata tomato products to be incorrectly labelled as “100% Italian”.
Petti Passata, who sells its products in the UK, has told concerned customers that it can “guarantee” the goods sold to them were genuine.
Pariotti argued the risk of fraud in tomatoes is a consequence of supermarkets devaluing the product and using it as a way of attracting customers.
He said: “On any market when you push the supplier to go down, down and down on costs, there is always a risk of fraud just around the corner.
“Unfortunately, if you want a proper Italian product from a company that is respecting the rules, you need to pay for it. You cannot always use it as an attraction to get your customers into the stores.”
