Cucumber crisis on the island – caused by Tiktoker “Cucumber Guy”

“Cucumber type”
Tiktoker plunges island into cucumber crisis

Basically, the recipe isn’t particularly extravagant: cucumbers, sesame oil, garlic, rice vinegar and chili oil. But what the TikToker “Cucumber Guy” showed his 5.9 million followers seems to have gone down particularly well in Iceland. As the BBC reports, Canadian Logan Moffitt – the real name of the “Cucumber Guy” – has taken the state in the North Atlantic from a cucumber shortage to a cucumber crisis. Local influencers spread the recipe, writes the BBC, and thus triggered a trend.

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The recipe has been such a success that the country’s farmers have been unable to keep up with the increasing demand, Icelandic vegetable cooperative Sölufélag garðyrkjumanna (SFG) told BBC News. According to SFG spokeswoman Kristín Linda Sveinsdóttir, Icelandic farmers were surprised by the demand.

Cucumbers are particularly popular in Iceland

The food manager of the supermarket chain Hagkaup, Vignir Þór Birgisson, admitted that sales of some ingredients for the recipe have doubled. However, according to the BBC, he does not see the TikTok trend as the only reason for the shortage of Icelandic cucumbers: they are unusually common at this time of year.

Sveinsdóttir also brings other factors into play: Some farmers are currently exchanging cucumber plants. The end of the summer holidays and the return of children to school are putting additional strain on supplies. “Everything is happening at the same time,” Sveinsdóttir told the BBC. The trend in social media is one of the most important factors. “This is the first time we’ve seen something like this.” The shortage would not have occurred if the trend had occurred earlier in the summer. But Tiktok trends have not been very long-lasting so far. The SFG spokeswoman also expects the supply of cucumbers to return to normal “in about a week or so.”

This article is a reprint of Stern, which, like Capital, belongs to RTL Deutschland. It will be available here on Capital.de for ten days. After that, you will find it on www.stern.de.

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