UK supermarkets limit cooking oil in supply chain issue

Supermarkets across the UK have placed limits on the amount of cooking oil customers can buy due to supply chain problems caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Tesco allows three items per customer, while Waitrose and Morrisons have set limits of just two items each, according to the BBC.

A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, Tom Holder, said the move was a temporary measure “to ensure availability for all”.

Most of the UK’s sunflower oil comes from Ukraine, and restrictions apply to that product, as well as olive and rapeseed oils in some supermarkets.

Holder said retailers were “working with suppliers to increase production of alternative cooking oils to minimize the impact on consumers.”

A Tesco Ireland spokesman said: “We currently have no limits on customers’ purchase of cooking oils, but we are monitoring stock levels on a daily basis. We encourage customers not to disrupt their normal buying habits.”

Recent data showed that cooking oil was one of the staple foods to see a price increase in the UK.

The price of cooking oils and fats rose 7% and is nearly a quarter more expensive than a year ago, the Office for National Statistics said on April 13.

The war in Ukraine threatens the food supply and livelihoods of people in Europe, Africa and Asia who depend on the vast and fertile farmland of the Black Sea region, known as the “breadbasket of the world”.