Aussie favourite tinned beetroot has been stripped bare on supermarket shelves.
It appears we buy a lot of our beetroot from New Zealand and when Cyclone Gabrielle ripped through the Hawkes Bay area last year it devastated the crop and Australian growers did not take up the slack and a shortage is the result.
The shortage has mostly hit major supplier Golden Circle, which moved its beetroot buying to New Zealand several years ago.
“[Golden Circle] weren’t looking at the agricultural risk when they decided to move all the production across to New Zealand … they put all their eggs in one basket,” grower Ed Fagan told The Guardian.
Australian growers said they could have taken up the slack, but they were not informed.
Golden Circle claims beetroot will be back in the shops in the next few weeks and Edgell expects to be back to full capacity by May.
Do you like beetroot? Will this affect you?
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