Supermarkets have started to drop customer limits on buying certain fresh fruit and vegetables as supply issues that led to widespread shortages begin to ease. Asda confirmed it had removed limits of three on cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries, leaving restrictions of three on just tomatoes and peppers.
The supermarket said availability overall had improved as expected, and supplies of tomatoes and peppers were also expected to be back to normal within a couple of weeks. Shoppers began sharing their frustration about shortages of tomatoes around February 20, with retailers responding that a combination of bad weather and related transport problems in north Africa and Europe were causing significant supply problems.
The shortages soon spread to other products, leaving shelves bare of a number of fresh produce items including cucumbers, peppers and lettuces. Tesco, Aldi and Lidl limited purchases of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers to three items per person, while Morrisons set a limit of two items per customer across tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers.
