With shortages on the shelves, The Sunday Times attempts to get under the skin of a supply chain gone wrong
In the fields of Souss-Massa in Morocco, the wells are now 250 metres deep. Elsewhere in the north African nation, the burgeoning network of fruit and vegetable farmers rely on reservoirs, locally known as mirages, to water their crops at the edge of the Sahara; here, they dig.
After a year of dry weather, they had to delve deeper and deeper into the earth in search of water to keep their crop of tomatoes and bell peppers alive.
Yields in some areas fell by up to 40 per cent last year as a long drought was compounded by a tomato virus.
The result is now being felt thousands of miles away in the UK, where shelves are empty in some fruit and vegetable aisles of supermarkets.
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