These are the empty shelves in Welsh supermarkets as shoppers see a shortage in tomatoes and some other fresh produce. It comes as shoppers across the UK are warned that the situation could carry on for weeks.
Eggs have been in short supply for months but now there is growing alarm over other products. A combination of bad weather and transport problems in Africa and Europe is being blamed for UK supermarket shelves being left bare of tomatoes, as well as dwindling stocks of some other fresh produce in recent weeks.
Asda and Morrisons have introduced a customer limit of three on tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries, and other supermarkets are understood to be considering similar temporary measures.
At an Asda store in north Cardiff this week, there were very few tomatoes on offer, one of the main Tesco Extra stores in the city had a lack of tomatoes and cucumbers and a Cardiff Lidl store had no tomatoes left.
We contacted all the main supermarkets, and the ones that did come back referred us to a statement from the Retail Consortium. Sara Jones, head of the Consortium in Wales says the blame is down to difficult weather conditions in the south of Europe and northern Africa which have disrupted harvest for some fruit and vegetables including tomatoes and peppers.
She added: "While disruption is expected to last a few weeks, supermarkets are adept at managing supply chain issues and are working with farmers to ensure that customers are able to access a wide range of fresh produce.”
The British tomato season does not usually begin until the end of March with only 5% of tomatoes eaten in the UK at this time of year grown here. They are normally grown under glass because of our climate which is expensive to run normally, but even more so at the moment due to the rise in energy prices.
The board of the British Tomato Growers Association said: "Many have commented on the current lack of fresh tomatoes in some supermarket stores. Whilst this is predominantly a consequence of the lack of imported product at this time of year, the British tomato season will soon begin and we expect significant volumes of British tomatoes on shelves by the end of March and into April 2023.
"The British Tomato season runs from the end of March until November each year."
BTGA horticulturalist Dr Philip Morley also said inflation is affecting tomato producers in other ways. “Rising fuel costs have meant transportation costs are now higher,” said.
“Other input costs such as seeds, fertiliser, and feed have also increased between 100% and 400%. These are on top of the health checks on seeds entering the UK to rule out plant viruses that can affect crops. Those costs are also passed on to the grower.”
Ben Thomas, who owns the Dough Thrower restaurant in Canton, Cardiff said he predicted there would be shortages eight months ago.
"We use three types of tomatoes for our tomato sauce from Spain and Italy and already felt some of the issues were coming," he explained. "It really started after Covid and then there was bad weather in the countries where we get our supplies. It was a mix of Covid, Brexit and the weather putting strain on an already under pressure industry.
"We have seen massive increases and have had to to look around for different types of sources for our supplies. We find that we are spending much more on supplies.
Supermarket analyst Ged Futter told BBC Radio Wales there was some strain between UK farmers and supermarkets over the price of eggs but the reason why there is a shortage of tomatoes and other produce is because we import so much.
He said: "We don't have any British tomatoes because they are out of season so at the moment they come from abroad and the places where we get them from are having bad weather and that is having an impact on. Because we get all our tomatoes from overseas if there are any problems with the supply chain it doesn't take long for disruption.
"We get huge amount from Spain during the wiinter months they have weather to produce all year round. We are not able to get the volume from overseas."
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