Butternut squash is flooding the United Kingdom (UK) at the moment, with big volumes coming in from both South Africa and Brazil. Market watchers say it is in huge oversupply.
“The reason for the oversupply is that last year there was a shortage which was due to lockdowns creating more demand in retail and less supply, so this year big volumes have been planted and are now flooding the market,” according to Daniel Badger, Managing Director from VitaFresh Produce.
“The butternut squash is very good quality, but sales to food service are still limited with only outside dining open, sales are only up by around 10-20% compared with during lockdown which is not enough to absorb the extra volumes. Retail sales are probably at normal levels since they are mostly programmed.”
Daniel said that trade in general was better than it has been but not huge. This will hopefully change when indoor hospitality opens up on 17th of May, but it will still not be at full capacity.
“The ‘Exotics’ sales have been particularly hard hit by the closure of restaurants, they are not really products that consumers will tend to buy in the supermarkets or while dining outdoors.”
