As of yesterday, Friday, April 8, Waitrose allows each customer to purchase only up to two bottles of any cooking oil, in order to control the shortage. This includes sunflower oil, olive oil, rapeseed oil and other products. A statement from Waitrose read: “We want to ensure that customers continue to have access to cooking oil, so we ask them to purchase no more than two units each.” Restrictions also apply to online shopping. A message on the retailer’s website states: “To help more customers get the goods they need, you can only order two from the category.” The same restrictions apply to Morrisons, which allows only two bottles of any cooking oil to be purchased by one consumer at a time. The restriction also applies to the supermarket website during online shopping. A message says “Maximum quantity exceeded” if a customer tries to order more than two items in the category. Other supermarket chains have not yet provided products, however, availability has dropped significantly. Several Tesco products have been sold out on the retailer’s online shopping site. Unavailable products include sunflower oil and vegetable oil. Other retailers, including Sainsbury’s and Co-op, have also admitted shortages. In a statement, Sainsbury’s said: “It has been widely reported that the conflict in Ukraine is affecting a number of supply chains, including sunflower oil. “We work closely with our suppliers to ensure that customers continue to have cooking oils to choose from, such as olive oil, vegetable oil and rapeseed oil.” The supermarket chain added: “In products where sunflower oil is the main ingredient, we will replace it with alternatives and inform customers about these changes in the store and on the internet.” Co-op also said it was working with suppliers to find alternatives such as rapeseed oil, the Telegraph reported. The war in Ukraine has caused a major upheaval in the global sunflower oil supply chain, causing the prices of all cooking oils to soar worldwide. Ukraine produces 46% of world trade in sunflower seeds and cranberry oil, according to USDA data. Supply chain breaks also come from Russia, as the country has the second largest market share, accounting for 23 percent of the global market. At the same time, the Food Standards Agency said on March 24 that some foods labeled with sunflower oil may contain refined rapeseed oil.
