Investing for the apocalypse

If you can't afford a bolthole in New Zealand, never fear, says Merryn Somerset Webb. There are more profitable ways to prepare for the future.

The great British vegetable shortage filled the papers last weekend. Asda was reportedly limiting bulk purchases of broccoli, cabbage and courgettes. Tesco introduced a three-lettuce limit Morrisons opted for two. Pret a Manger changed ingredients in its salad boxes. And UK-wide, wholesalers raised the prices of vegetables by 40% (green beans) to 200% (tomatoes). Our own greengrocer told me that the last box of aubergines he had managed to get was £29. He was selling them on at cost.

This is not, as some of my neighbours seem to think, anything to do with Brexit. It is simply due to some nasty weather in Murcia (southeast Spain), from where the UK sources most of its winter vegetables. It is a consequence of the fact that the UK, despite decades of agricultural subsidisation, imports 40%-plus of its food via a complex global supply chain that is hostage to economic and environmental change. In 1991, it was only 25%.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.