Tesco has joined other supermarkets in limiting sales of certain fruit and vegetables as shortages have left shelves stripped bare.
Britain’s biggest supermarket has introduced a cap of three items per customer on tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
The news comes as retail experts have warned food shortages could “last for weeks,” with the government told that the “clock is ticking”.
National Farming Union (NFU) president Minette Batters said this week at the NFU conference that the production of tomatoes and cucumbers is expected to drop to “the lowest levels since records began in 1985”.
She told the government the “clock is ticking” to action the post-Brexit subsidy scheme and get inflation under control so farmers can produce more reliably.
But environment secretary, Theresa Coffey, rejected responsibility for the current supermarket rationing of fruit and vegetables, saying: “We can’t control the weather in Spain.”
In the winter months, the UK imports around 95 per cent of its tomatoes and 90 per cent of its lettuces, most of it from Spain and north Africa.
