Supermarkets Ration Fruits and Vegetables

B1 – Intermediate

In the UK, there have been a shortage in the supply of fruits and vegetables. Customers are having difficulties finding places to buy fruits and vegetables from. The big supermarkets said there are many reasons for this shortage in their supplies. As a result, most of their shelves are left almost empty.

Due to this, supermarkets have no choice but to ration some produces in the middle of this problem with low fruits and vegetables supply in the country.

Read the article about the fruits and vegetables shortage in the UK and how the supermarkets started rationing the supply to their customers.

https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2303/230306-uk-vegetable-rationing-5.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does ”bare” mean here, “The big chains have given various reasons for the shortfall in supply and why shelves are bare in supermarket aisles.”? Give 2 synonyms of the word ‘bare’ in this context and use them in sentences.
  2. What does the expression “to play a part” mean, “An industry analyst said Brexit has also played a part.”? Use this idiom in your own sentence.
  3. What does “war-torn” mean, “Many shoppers are shocked at seeing photos on social media of supermarket shelves in Europe, and in war-torn Ukraine, full of fresh produce.”? Use this word in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is your reaction to this news? Has something similar happened in your country too?
  2. What are the reasons for the lack of supply in fruits and vegetables in the UK?
  3. Is it a good solution to limit how much fruits and veggies each customer can buy? Explain your opinion.
  4. Do you agree or disagree to this, “If there are shortfalls in production in the EU, then it makes sense for EU producers to serve their local demand first.”? Share your thoughts.
  5. Talk about some products or produces that became low in supply in your country. How did that shortage affect you?
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4 replies on “Supermarkets Ration Fruits and Vegetables”

Vocabulary Questions :

1. This means that there isn’t food in the shelves of the supermarket.
Synonyms:
1. Empty: The shelves are empty due to weather conditions.
2. Vacant: People’s shelves are vacant because they can’t buy food at the supermarket.

2. I think this means that Brexit is a reason for the shortfall in supply.
Supporters have played a part in the victory of their team.

3. It means that Ukraine is destroyed by the war.
The war-torn of 1920 left many people without home.

Discussion Questions :

1. I feel very bad for those people who have problems to buy things, I think that the goverments should never let this happen and they must implement rules for control the sale of food in supermarket. With these rules goverments would be able to prevent the shortfall in supply of fruit and vegetables.

Yes, at the beggining of the pandemic in my country people started going to the supermarket to buy a lot of toilet paper
so there were a lot of problems with the supply of toilet paper.

2. I think that apart from the weather problems, there are two main factors: the Brexit and the war between Ukraine and Russia. As it’s said on the article due to Brexit with the exit of UK from Europe if the European countries have problems with supply or if they are producing less fruits and veggies consequently they are going to export less veggies and fruit. Finally, the war is affecting a lot of countries in many aspects so there are problems with the supply of many services or products not only with veggies or fruits, there are problems with the price of gasoline, electricity, etc.

3. I think that to start solving the problem of supply it’s the best measure to ensure that people don’t buy too much because they
have fear of not being able to buy more in the future. But I think that families with more children must have preference, and they
will be able to buy more quantity of food than a family with no children.

4. This is obvious at the end people is a bit selfish and they always look at theirselves. In these situations the people don’t think
in people from other countries and how they are surviving, so they prefer to keep as much as they can in their own countris. I think
that this is a bad thought and we hace to think and collaborate with each other as we live in the same world.

5. As I said in question 1 at the beggining of the pandemic there were some problems with the supply of toilet paper, people got crazy
and started buying as much as they can so there were some days where the shelves of the supermarkets where empty but in a few days the problems were solved and people calmed down and started to buy responsibly.

Nice to have you on the Phoneenglish blog! May this exercise help you improve your English writing skills further.

Take a look at these few sentences you can still revise with better word choices and punctuations:

The war-torn of 1920 left many people without home.

In 1920, the war-torn country was left with many people without a home.

I feel very bad for those people who have problems to buy things, I think that the goverments should never let this happen and they must implement rules for control the sale of food in supermarket. With these rules goverments would be able to prevent the shortfall in supply of fruit and vegetables.

I feel very bad for those people who have problems to buy things. I think that the government should never let this happen and they must implement rules that control the sales of food at supermarkets. With these rules, the government would be able to prevent the occurence of shortage in the supply of fruits and vegetables.

Looking forward to reading more of your work!

1.What is your reaction to this news? Has something similar happened in your country too?
I think is normal form the Brexit , UK has a different rules and taxes that the UE and it cann´t produce all products necessaries for the country. It needs import products to the UE and the cost of the transport is very high currenctly ( petrol , energy, cereal…. Have been increased so much).
In my country happened something similar in the fists days of the covid ( the lockdown) when people are afraid and we bought a lot of things to store at home. Supermarket were empty (no fresh food, milk, clean products….) and a few months when the war in Ukraine started happened similar situation with the sunflower oil where the supermarket limited the units per person to buy.

2.What are the reasons for the lack of supply in fruits and vegetables in the UK?
Shortages were due to adverse weather overseas or in other countries as Morocco has suffered drought then it had let to poor harvests.
Other problem is the warm in Ukraine where the cost of energy has increased and it is impossible to assume it for the producers.

3.Is it a good solution to limit how much fruits and veggies each customer can buy? Explain your opinion.
It´s a good solution in short term, because people usually buy more products even if they don´t need them in these kind of situations.

4.Do you agree or disagree to this, “If there are shortfalls in production in the EU, then it makes sense for EU producers to serve their local demand first.”? Share your thoughts.
I agree because if you don´t have enough product to server our local demand is very difficult to export to others countries but, we know, at the end, this is a political decision.

5.Talk about some products or produces that became low in supply in your country. How did that shortage affect you?

In my country for example the milk. Cost to product this article is very high for the farmers ( cost of energy, cereals for the animals…) and the result is farms are closing and the price of the milk has increased about 30-35% in the last 2 years.

It’s a good thing that you are taking the time and putting in efforts in practicing your skills in writing.

Here is how you can revise this one response of yours:

In my country for example the milk. Cost to product this article is very high for the farmers ( cost of energy, cereals for the animals…) and the result is farms are closing and the price of the milk has increased about 30-35% in the last 2 years.

In my country, an for example the is milk. The cost to produce this product is very high for the farmers. Their expenses include cost of energy, feeds for the animals, and others. and As a result, is farms are closing and the price of the milk has increasing to about 30-35% in the last two years.

Revised version:

In my country, an example is milk. The cost to produce this product is very high for the farmers. Their expenses include cost of energy, feeds for the animals, and others. As a result, farms are closing and the price of milk increasing to about 30-35% in the last two years.

Just keep at it so you can see more and more improvements in your skills.

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