In a pickle: Why TikTok is being blamed for a cucumber shortage in Iceland

It’s a cucumber conundrum in Iceland, and TikTok is at the heart of it.

What began as a playful online trend by a popular influencer has spiralled into a nationwide cucumber shortage, leaving grocery shelves empty and shoppers scrambling.

Kronan, a major grocery chain in Iceland, revealed to the BBC that cucumber sales surged so rapidly they were caught off guard, prompting an ‘emergency shipment’ of cucumbers from the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, Hagkaup, another leading supermarket, reported that cucumber purchases have more than doubled, with customers racing to stock up on the elusive vegetable.

What sparked this unexpected frenzy? Let’s dive into the story behind Iceland’s veggie upheaval.

The ‘cucumber boy’ effect

It all began with Canada-based TikToker Logan Moffitt, known as “cucumber guy,” who started sharing his irresistibly tempting cucumber salad recipes on TikTok. With over 5.5 million followers, Moffitt has been posting daily cucumber recipes since July.

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“Sometimes, you just need to eat a whole cucumber,” Moffitt declares at the start of his videos, before slicing cucumbers with a vegetable slicer.

He then mixes the grated cucumbers with a variety of flavour-enhancing ingredients, which can include sesame seeds, soy sauce, sour cream, chili oil, cheese, tomatoes, onions, paprika, salmon, garlic, rice vinegar in a plastic container.

Thanks to his videos, people in Iceland are now chopping, pickling, and consuming cucumbers like never before. The #Cucumber has over four million posts (most of them featuring salad recipes) on Instagram alone, with around 150,000 videos shared on Medium.

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It’s all sold out!

The recipe has been such a hit that farmers in the country have been unable to keep up with spiralling demand, reported BBC citing Iceland’s farmers association - the Horticulturists’ Sales Company (SFG).

Daniel Sigthorsson, 30, from Reykjavik, was eager to try a cucumber salad but was surprised to find no cucumbers available at his local grocery store. “I was like, ‘That’s weird,’" he told The New York Times (NYT). “That’s one of the things we never run out of in Iceland. And then I saw the news.”

Kronan’s online store reported that apart from cucumbers, there is a staggering 200 per cent increase in searches for ingredients commonly used in the viral recipes, such as sesame oil, rice vinegar, and fish sauce. Icelandic media also noted that sesame oil is now sold out in some stores due to the doubled demand.

“A few people can have a lot of influence,” Haflidi Halldorsson, who works in marketing for the country’s sheep farmers told NYT.

 While Iceland prides itself on its self-sustaining agriculture, dealing with food supply shortages is particularly challenging as much of its staple produce is grown in geothermal-powered greenhouses.

In cases of shortages, the island, isolated in the far Northern Hemisphere, has to import to fill the gap and can prove to be much more expensive than it might be elsewhere in Europe.

Kristin Linda Sveinsdottir the marketing director of SFG, which represents vegetable farmers in Iceland told the NYT that the timing of the cucumber frenzy is particularly bad.

Why?

Hagkaup told the BBC that the cucumber shortage in Iceland isn’t solely due to the viral TikTok recipe. It’s actually common to experience shortages of Icelandic cucumbers around this time of year.

Kristín Linda Sveinsdóttir from the SFG also expressed scepticism, pointing out that several factors are at play. She explained that some cucumber farmers are in the process of replacing their plants at this time of year, meaning production is temporarily lower.

Farmers in Iceland, which has a population of 393,600, typically produce around six million cucumbers annually, Ms Sveinsdóttir told the British publication.

Adding to the strain, schools are returning from summer holidays, leading to bulk orders for their kitchens, which further pressures the supply.

“Everything is happening at the same time,” said Sveinsdóttir, while acknowledging that the social media trend remains one of the main contributing factors.

With input from agencies