The ongoing wet weather in the Netherlands has created a shortage of spinach on the supermarket shelves, RTL news reported this week.

Spinach takes four to five weeks to reach maturity, so farmers sow their fields continually to be sure of enough stock.

But the continual rain means “we are still starting up,” spinach grower Edwin van Uijen said. “The spinach still in the fields has had it. The soil is too wet so the roots die and then the crop fails.”

The potato and other crops are also being affected, Judith van de Mortel from HAS Green Academy told the broadcaster.

“The plants and the seeds are rotting away,” she said. “Sugar beat, corn for animal feed, and spelt are also doing badly. That means crops will be down and everything will be more expensive in the supermarket.”

Ton Slagter from farming lobby group (LTO) told local broadcaster Omroep Gelderland that it is too late to organise large scale imports of spinach from abroad.

“They are not geared up for it,” Slagter said. “We’ll have to make do with the spinach we grow here.” He says the domestic spinach harvest is now at between 60% and 70% of its normal levels.