London Thanasis Gavos

The supermarket chains Asda and Morrisons in Britain on Tuesday imposed a limit on the amount of certain fruits and vegetables each consumer can buy due to shortages in their availability.

The restrictions specifically concern tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, ready-to-eat salads, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries.

An Asda spokesman said the temporary restrictions were deemed necessary due to “difficulties in the supply of some products produced in southern Spain and northern Africa”.

Each customer will be able for the next “few weeks” to buy three pieces of each aforementioned product.

At Morrisons the limit was set at two pieces.

According to the British Retailers Consortium, weather conditions in countries such as Spain and Morocco have ruined this year’s tomato and pepper crops.

In particular, these areas experienced floods, snowfalls and hailstorms in the previous period.

For example, Britain imports 95% of tomatoes which consumes from December to March.

Other UK supermarket chains are also considering temporary restrictions on the amount of sales per customer.

Meanwhile, the National Farmers’ Union in Britain is warning of shortages in domestically produced vegetables and fruit as well, but in this case due to high energy costs.

As emphasized, in several cases greenhouses have ceased to be used for products such as tomatoes and cucumbers.