European vegetable canners and freezers in major producing countries are concerned over this year’s spring crops. After a cold spring, the countries in the central production area of Europe had an exceptionally low rainfall in May and June and whilst differences are noted between the North and South of Europe, certain regions had 40 to 50% less precipitation than normal.

In addition, the first week of July has been tropically warm and dry with high winds, which intensified the dry-out effect. A heat wave was officially declared with record-high temperatures over 35°C. These meteorological conditions have affected major vegetable crops and shortages will occur for a number of vegetables:- Peas: the crop will be reduced by the dry and hot weather. It will be a very shortseason with a later than normal start and an early finish.- Spring spinach: after the cold spring the season has been moved up in time andnot all the planned hectares could be sown and processed. The extreme droughtand heat on top have further affected the crop.- Cauliflower: a reduced production is resulting from heat and drought.Beans: because of the drought the sowing of beans became extremely difficult tonearly impossible.- Rootcrops (carrots): the spring crop is late and lost its potential. Consequentlyconcerns arise over the seasonal production of canned mixes of peas and carrots.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/