Freak Spanish rainfall now costs UK groceries

THE freak winter rainfall has not only proved costly for Andalucia.

It has seen the price of Spanish fruit and vegetable exports to the UK rocket up, according to The Grocer magazine.

Favourites such as oranges are now 25 per cent more expensive, avocados are up 17 per cent and cauliflowers are now 12 per cent more dear.

“They have had four times the rainfall of an average year in the last two months alone.”

Downpours on a never-seen-before scale have wiped out large amounts of crops in the region, reducing supply and pushing up prices.

It is feared that up to one third of Andalucian citrus crops have been destroyed.

The supply of strawberries, raspberries, lettuce and spinach among other crops has also been seriously cut.

One UK supplier told the magazine: “They have had four times the rainfall of an average year in the last two months alone.

“And with the effect of poor exchange rates and the increased cost of shipping, it has really pushed up prices.”

The UK imports more than 25 billion euros of Spanish fruit and vegetable every year.