Get ready for tomato-less pasta sauce and white pizza. Italian restaurants across Britain are having to ration tomatoes, increase prices and in some cases remove the pomodoro from their menus entirely as costs soar.
The price of tomatoes has increased as much as fourfold in the past year, from £5 a case to £20 a case, according to the Federazione Italian Cuochi UK (FIC UK), a chefs’ association.
The price of canned tomatoes has doubled, it said, from £15 a case to £30. The cost of that insalata staple the iceberg lettuce has also soared, from around £7 a box to £22.
Tomatoes are among the species worst affected by the UK’s fruit and vegetable shortage, which has left supermarket shelves empty. The government has blamed bad weather in southern Europe and north Africa. High electricity prices have also hit supplies of produce grown in greenhouses in Britain and the Netherlands.
Enzo Oliveri, FIC UK’s president, said that following issues with rising costs and Brexit, now was a “very difficult” time for Italian restaurants, and warned that some may go out of business. “I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
His members normally source their tomatoes from Italy, Spain or Morocco. “But because there’s everywhere a shortage, there’s no tomatoes coming from any place,” he said.
Oliveri is working with tomato suppliers to secure quantities of high quality canned and crushed tomatoes, but these are also seeing shortages.
Some restaurants, Oliveri said, are adapting by moving their menus away from the ingredient, and instead offering “white” tomato-less pizzas and pasta dishes.
Chefs are using cheeses such as ricotta, or vegetables including courgettes or aubergines as a base and to thicken sauces. “White pizza, white sauces for pasta or less tomato. We’re making it a trend because prices are going up and because of shortages.”
He called for the government to cap tomato prices, warning: “When the prices go up we’re in trouble. We cannot calculate the margins any more.”
Carmelo Carnevale, president of the Italian Culinary Consortium, said that tomato prices have gone up three times in the past two weeks alone. While restaurants are still getting tomatoes, they are not getting them in their usual quantities.
“It’s very stressful for us, especially that we also have ours imported from Italy twice a week. We’re lucky to get it,” he said. “Tomatoes are in a lot of our dishes. We as a company promote ‘made in Italy’ and we have to keep our identity without compromising the quality. We can’t increase our prices either, so we’re not making any profit.”
Restaurant owners are worried for their futures, he said, adding this is “not a good time at all”.
Antonio Alderuccio of vegetarian restaurant Plant Club in London, said prices for passata (sieved tomatoes) had risen by 70% in the past year. “The tomato price is skyrocketing at the moment.”
One of his Sicilian producers blames the climate crisis. “In Sicily the temperatures during last winter averaged 22C,” he said. “That meant the tomatoes ripened really quickly, and that is why a lot of products haven’t arrived on the market.” Alderuccio is still cooking with tomatoes but has raised prices so he can preserve quality without losing money, he said.
Chef Theo Randall, who specialises in Italian cuisine at his restaurant at the InterContinental Hotel in Mayfair, said he had not experienced issues yet, but had noticed suppliers seem to be rationing passata. “You order 10 tins and get three,” he said.
To get around any supply issues, chefs are basing their menus on what ingredients are available. “Everything has gone up,” he said. “Essentially you’ve just got to put your prices up.
“And you’ve got to look at ingredients you can afford to use. For all restaurants, it’s is a very difficult time. Over the past few years the hospitality industry has been hit by so many things, and this is another one.”
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs said last week that the UK had a “highly resilient food supply chain and is well equipped to deal with disruption”.
A spokesperson said it was in “close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables were predominantly caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa, where they are produced.”
Ministers, they added, would soon be holding an industry roundtable discussion with supermarkets about how to help return supplies to normal.
