Several fruit and vegetable shelves were bare in Wrexham and Flintshire yesterday, February 22, amid major shortages of popular fresh food items.
The shortages have been blamed on extreme weather conditions in Spain and North Africa, very important regions for growing these foods.
The extreme weather includes floods, snow and hail, affecting harvesting and supplies.
Asda and Morrisons have now introduced purchasing restrictions on items such as tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries and lettuce.
The Leader headed out to local supermarkets in Wrexham and Flintshire to see how the shelves were looking.
In Tesco Mold and Aldi Mold, while there were some tomatoes available the stock appeared to be diminished with several items branded 'out of stock'.
Aldi was particularly short-stocked on cucumbers as well as tomatoes.
Store staff at Morrisons in Connah's Quay had attempted to provide alternative solutions to the shortage by placing tins of chopped tomatoes in place of the fresh produce.
There were no tomatoes available in the store yesterday as well as low stock on several other fruit and vegetables.
The store placed signs indicating that 'Availability across our tomatoes range has been significantly impacted by adverse weather conditions across Spain and Morocco. The current shortage is likley to improve within a couple of weeks."
The signs also advised customers that during the shortage a limit of two per customer had been implemented across the tomato range, as well as on peppers and cauliflower.
A couple at the store, who did not wish to be named, said they understand why the limit has been put in place.
They added: "We have noticed it over the last few weeks, but we haven't seen it as bad as today. We will have to just make do with what they have."
Asda in Queensferry had similar restrictions in place due to the very limited stock, however there were some tomatoes on the shelves.
The store had implemented an item restriction of three items per customer on cucumbers, tomatoes, raspberries, lettuce, broccoli and peppers.
Signs placed on items said: "At this time of high demand and intermittent supply we're working hard to keep our shelves stocked with items for everyone.
"We've always been proud to serve our customers with great items and we'd ask all our customers to please shop responsibly so we can help make sure there is enough to go around."
Asda in Wrexham also appeared to have a depleted supply of some fruit and vegetables, specifically tomatoes.
There were also low numbers of raspberries and strawberries on display.
Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, Andrew Opie said that the disruption was expected to last for "a few weeks".
Adding that 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".
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Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium, which represents hundreds of businesses said: "There's been a myriad of individual factors", adding that producers have suffered from "Weather, fuel costs, packaging and distribution costs, energy costs."
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the UK has suffered particularly badly from the shortage as other European countries show little sign of empty shelves.
Experts suggest that the UK could be suffering more because of lower domestic production and complex supply chains.
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