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.