Coles is providing a temporary solution for South-East Queensland customers wanting to buy iceberg lettuces, with floods and cold weather impacting supply. 
Customers can purchase two smaller lettuces for $6.50. This is the same price they would currently pay for one at Coles.
“While these lettuces haven’t fully grown due to the extremely cold weather, they are still delicious and in fantastic condition,” says the retailer.
“The initiative allows growers in the Lockyer Valley to utilise some of the iceberg lettuce crops that have been impacted on by the recent wet weather and will improve availability for customers.”
Lockyer Valley producer Matt Hood from Rugby Farm says there is plenty of this product in their fields and this initiative will ensure they don’t go to waste.
“We’ve had devastating floods earlier this year, ongoing heavy rainfall, recent cold weather and lower levels of sunlight and that means we’ve struggled to get our lettuces to grow to a big enough size that customers would expect,” he says.
“We are so pleased to work with Coles to produce a product that will still be delicious and fresh. The current iceberg lettuces in the fields are small; however, the hearts are still crisp and great for eating, which is why we are doubling up to give customers two instead of one.”
Coles General Manager of Produce Craig Taylor says the retailer’s fresh produce team is working closely with growers to help them recover as quickly as possible.
“The onset of winter has brought some freezing temperatures around Australia. While Coles has an abundance of certain fresh fruit and vegetables like avocados, pears, oranges, kiwi fruit, onions, carrots and potatoes that offer great value, some items are in restricted supply,” he says.
“When we spoke to the team at Rugby Farm and heard that there was a supply of delicious lettuces in the ground that weren’t going to make it to the full size because of the cold weather we knew we had to come up with a solution to help our customers and our growers.
“A two pack will offer value to our customers with a price in line with a single full size iceberg lettuce, and it will help our growers make the most of their crops while giving our customers more supply.”
The soft-plastic packaging that the lettuces are packed in can be recycled in REDCycle bins located at Coles supermarkets.