Australia’s bad weather prompts shortage of broccoli

Wild weather that has been battering Australia’s east coast for most of this year means it’s bad news for broccoli lovers.

Wild weather that has been battering Australia’s east coast for most of this year means it could be bad news for broccoli lovers.

The humble vegetable is in short supply due to flooding in New South Wales in May, as well as Cyclone Alfred and drought conditions in South Australia and Victoria.

All three major supermarkets — Coles, Aldi and Woolworths — confirmed to news.com.au that the vegetable is currently in short supply.

“Due to recent extreme weather events across several key growing regions, we have seen some availability challenges around our broccoli ranges,” a Coles spokesperson said.

“We are working closely with our suppliers to improve supply as quickly as possible.

Wild weather in Australia has impacted broccoli supply. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Cyclone Alfred, drought and flooding across the east coast are responsible. Picture: NSW SES/Facebook

The spokesperson continued: “Customers can still find great value across numerous other vegetables this winter.”

The supermarket giant has also placed customer notices in stores to alert shoppers to the fact the vegetable is currently in high demand.

A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed they are experiencing a similar shortage, but said it was “short term”.

“We know broccoli is a winter favourite and, as always, we are working with our grower partners to get more supply back into stores as quickly as possible,” the Woolworths spokesperson told news.com.au.

Meanwhile, an Aldi spokesperson confirmed the weather conditions over the past six weeks had created the issue. The German supermarket brand said it was working with produce partners to monitor the situation and ensure the “best prices possible”.

One Reddit user noticed the shortage after monitoring the price of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, as well as fresh broccoli at one supermarket. The frozen product cost $8 per kilogram, while the fresh – which appeared to be sold out – cost $9.90 a kilo.

Supermarkets said they were working with suppliers. Picture: istock

“I’ve been watching the fresh broccoli price increase for weeks wondering if it would surpass the frozen price. It finally happened,” the Reddit user stated.

“I don’t understand how. Even if bad weather has affected fresh stock, surely still the additional processing cost of cutting, removing stems, washing, bagging and costs of bags for frozen broc would mean the frozen is more expensive.”

In March, Ben Pohlner, who runs Volcano Produce in western Victoria, told the ABC his crop was growing — but the lack of moisture in the soil was ruining the taste of his broccoli crop. He said he hasn’t been able to grow a decent broccoli crop since September 2024.

Broccoli price comparison picture shared to Reddit. Picture: Reddit

“The broccoli has gotten water stress and gone bitter — we’ve had crop after crop fail on us this year, especially over summer,” he told the publication.

“We still get the nice broccoli or cauliflower head on them but it’s practically inedible, it’s too bitter to eat.”

Australia isn’t the first country to experience a shortage of broccoli this year, with the UK experiencing the same in January, The Guardian reported. This was due to the fact that milder autumn and winter weather caused crops to produce earlier than usual.

The news of a broccoli shortage comes less than a week after Ian Hemphill, the managing director of Herbie’s Spices, said that a variety of factors — including monsoon seasons in Vietnam — had led to a shortage of black pepper.

“As you would appreciate, pepper being an agricultural commodity, it is always effected by the things that effect anything that’s grown, harvested, processed,” he told news.com.au.

“And so the changes we’re experiencing — the monsoons have been unpredictable, they’ve been either too low or too heavy. And that’s what fertilises a pepper crop.”

He said from what he’s seen, lower crop yields across countries such as Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia and India, have seen a lack of availability. He said this is normally when prices go up.

Supermarkets such as Coles, Woolworths and Aldi said supply had not been impacted at that stage, but Mr Hemphill said it would be something we’d see the impact of in the next three months as supply was often bought in advance.

Originally published as Australia’s bad weather prompts shortage of broccoli