The Christmas supermarket wars took an unprecedented turn today as three of the biggest retailers cut their vegetable prices to just 5p and brought in rationing.
Morrisons said this morning it would cut the prices of British carrots (1kg), parsnips (500g), Brussels sprouts (500g) and whole swedes to 5p for More Card customers.
This has forced Lidl and Aldi, who had both previously revealed vegetables would be on sale for 8p, to also cut their prices to 5p to ensure they match Morrisons.
Aldi will be limiting each vegetable to four per customer, while Morrisons is limiting shoppers to eight items across its full 5p range. Lidl has not announced rationing.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s are in the battle too, having already unveiled prices of 15p for vegetables for those in the Clubcard and Nectar loyalty schemes respectively.
All five supermarkets are offering parsnips, Brussels sprouts, carrots and swedes for the discounted price, while they all have potatoes in the deal apart from Morrisons.
Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have cabbages in their deal, while Tesco is the only supermarket to include broccoli and Lidl is alone in offering echalion shallots.
The dates on which the deals are offered vary – with Morrisons active for the longest between today and Boxing Day, while Tesco is between today and Christmas Day.
Sainsbury’s and Lidl are both running their deals between today and Christmas Eve, while Aldi’s is on offer for the shortest length from tomorrow until Christmas Eve.
Lidl fired the starting gun on a race to the bottom on vegetable prices when it made an 8p announcement on November 24, with retailers now having an annual battle.
But this year’s prices are lower than in Christmas 2024, when Aldi and Asda joined Lidl in offering vegetables for 8p after a day of price cuts brought them down from 15p.
Such a price war has attracted criticism from the farming sector despite retailers claiming that payments to growers are unaffected by the huge discounts.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) raised concerns about the impact price cuts can have on consumer expectations about the real value of British produce.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw told the Daily Mail: ‘We know that promotional activity can help drive sales, but it’s important that retailers take responsibility for their seasonal promotions.
‘For example, ensuring they don’t damage the public’s perception of true market value and production costs, or encourage people to buy more short shelf-life items than they need, which risks increasing food waste at home.
‘As an industry we need to drive investment to deliver for future food security and the British people who truly value high quality, homegrown food.
‘A crucial part of that is a fair and transparent market, where farmers and growers can get fair returns for the risk and capital invested.’
Retailers have insisted farmers will not lose out, with Aldi insisting it uses fixed-cost pricing for UK growers to ‘ensure they receive a fair price, no matter the season’.
Lidl has said that it ‘works on long-term agreements with producers and growers, ensuring that promotional prices do not affect the price paid to the farmer’.
And Morrisons told how its offer was ‘developed in close collaboration with UK farmers, ensuring that seasonal savings are delivered without compromising the price paid to producers’.
Sainsbury’s said the prices on its 15p vegetables without Nectar will be 69p for carrots, £1 for Brussels sprouts, £1.32 for potatoes, 74 for parsnips, 62 for swedes and 79p for cabbages
The retailer added that it had ‘delivered this offer in partnership’ with farmers and the savings ‘come without compromising the price paid to our producers’.
Meanwhile Tesco, which is offering the largest number of options within its deal of any supermarket, said Clubcard members ‘can enjoy savings of up to 89 per cent on festive veg’.
Asda has not yet made an announcement on a Christmas vegetable price cut.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, told the Mail: ‘Keeping food affordable ensures British consumers love British food even more.
‘Retailers are doing everything they can to support struggling customers and ensure everyone can enjoy all their favourite British foods this Christmas.
‘Their commitment to British farmers is as strong as ever and they will continue to source the vast majority of food they sell from here in Britain.’
Last week a study from Worldpanel by Numerator found that the average cost of Christmas dinner at a supermarket now stands at £32.46 with cranberry sauce and stuffing mix seeing the biggest increases over the past year.
Gravy granules, carrots, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, sparking wine, potatoes and Christmas pudding also went up in price.
But a fall in the cost of frozen turkey and parsnips saw the overall cost in the four weeks to November 30 slip by 11p compared to last year’s total of £32.57.
A separate inflation tracker from Which? released yesterday found Britons are paying up to 70 per cent more for their Christmas food at supermarkets this year with chocolate and turkey soaring in price.
