National beetroot crisis sees eBay sellers auctioning off cans for eyewatering sums
eBay sellers are taking advantage of desperate Australians looking for a simple piece of beetroot amid a national shortage of the vegetable.
Overpriced deals on cans of beetroot have appeared on the e-commerce website, with one seller offering a 425g can of Edgell sliced beetroot for an eye-watering $65.78.
Another retailer offered shoppers an 850-gram can of Golden Circle whole baby beets for $39.09, allowing customers to decide whether to spend big or forgo the tasty vegetable.
The staggering prices come as consumers have been left with empty shelves due to a national beet shortage after New Zealand’s Golden Circle cannery was knocked out by Cyclone Gabrielle last year.
However, the cyclone would not have created such a problem for beet lovers across the country if the cannery had remained in Brisbane, where it was located before Golden Circle was purchased by Kraft Heinz in 2008.
The national beetroot shortage has seen sellers offering cans at staggering prices (pictured)
Whole baby beets sell online for $39.09 (pictured)
The cannery moved to Hawkes Bay, New Zealand in 2011.
A focus on Australian-grown vegetables could help prevent future shortages. A spokesperson for the Australian vegetable and potato industry’s peak body, AUSVEG, said this situation ‘underlines the need to ensure Australia has sufficient food production and processing capacity to meet domestic needs’.
“As a net importer of canned or processed vegetable products, Australia is often at the mercy of international supply chain factors when it comes to the supply of certain product lines,” the spokesperson said.
They said the country’s national vegetable supply was one of Australia’s strengths, with the “ability to produce most commodities all year round”.
“This means that any short-term reductions in supply from individual regions in Australia due to weather conditions or other factors can in many cases be met by production from other regions,” they said.
A spokesperson for Kraft Heinz said that while many crops – including beetroot – were affected by the cyclone, customers could expect their burgers to be back on shelves in the coming weeks, allowing for a normal supply in the coming months.
The beetroot should appear on supermarket shelves again in the coming weeks