A shortage of tomatoes affecting UK supermarkets is widening to other fruit and vegetables and is likely to last weeks, retailers have warned.
A combination of bad weather and transport problems in Africa and Europe has seen UK supermarket shelves left bare of tomatoes, as well as dwindling stocks of some other fresh produce.
Asda has introduced a customer limit of three on tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries, and Morrisons said it would be introducing limits of two items per customer across tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, peppers from Wednesday.
Other supermarkets are understood to be considering similar temporary measures.
It is understood that retailers believe the problems stem from poor yields on the continent and north Africa, and that supplies will improve in the coming days or weeks.
But even still, the shortages have once again demonstrated what life outside of the European Union looks like.
With shelves seemingly well stocked in Europe, questions have turned to how member states have managed to weather the storm better than the UK.
Cieran Donovan has pointed to policy documents outlining EU trading relations with Morocco which show the EU buys €2.5 billion in agri-food and provides political and financial assistance.
The UK has a continuity agreement with Morocco – but a country of 65 million people is nothing compared to the EU’s 450 million people market.
“You don’t really stand a chance”, Donovan said. “It’s like going to the market at the end of the day and scraping up what’s left off the floor.”
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