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A turnip for the books: Searches for ‘how to grow your own veg’ rocket

Searches for ‘how to grow your own veg’ have soared on the back of recent shortages of fresh produce.

Last week, Tesco became the latest supermarket to follow Aldi, Asda and Morrisons in introducing customer limits on certain fresh produce as shortages leave supermarket shelves bare.

The UK’s biggest supermarket introduced a temporary buying limit of three items per customer on tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers as a precautionary measure.

The supermarket said it was working hard with its suppliers to ensure a good supply of vegetables for customers in light of temporary supply challenges on some lines due to adverse weather conditions abroad.

Aldi has placed limits on peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes as retailers warned the shortages – although expected to be temporary – were likely to last weeks.

According to analysis of Google Trend data by digital marketing agency The Audit Lab, searches for turnips were up 260 per cent on the back of the shortages after Therese Coffey suggested Brits look closer to home to source fresh food.

There has also been a sizeable increase in the term “veg limit”, with searches up by 284 per cent, while there has been a jump of 203 per cent for the term “UK veg”.

Elsewhere, the term “tomato alternative” is seeing a rise of 105 per cent and “how to grow tomatoes” is also up by 129 per cent.

“Grow your own veg” continues the trend and is also seeing a rise of 66 per cent, the data shows.

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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