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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Ruby Flanagan

Tesco removes all buying limits on fruit and veg following Asda, Aldi, and Lidl

Tesco has become the latest retailer to lift buying restrictions across certain fruits and vegetables.

The big four supermarket confirmed on Tuesday that it had removed its buying limit on tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

The move followed Asda, Lidl and Aldi who removed all their buying restrictions over the past week.

Tesco brought in buying restrictions in February in response to supply issues within the industry and put in place a three-item buying limit per customer.

Aldi and Lidl also capped the number of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes to three units per customer while Asda initially had a limit on eight pieces of fruit and veg.

The three item limit was across tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries.

As of writing, Morrisons is the only supermarket to continue to have restrictions in place for customers.

It recently removed its limits on cucumbers, but limits remain in place on tomatoes, lettuce and peppers to two packs per customer.

Other supermarket chains such as Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Iceland and Co-Op did not introduce restrictions in their stores.

Shoppers began sharing their frustration about shortages of tomatoes around February 20 this year. .

The shortages soon spread to other products, leaving shelves bare of a number of fresh produce items.

The reason for the shortages was due to the UK's major winter suppliers Morocco and Spain experiencing cold temperatures, heavy rain, and flooding for a few weeks at the beginning of the year.

Morrocan growers and suppliers also saw ferries cancelled due to the bad weather.

The British Retail Consortium said Britain typically imports 95% of its tomatoes and 90% of lettuces from December to March.

Another reason for the reduced supplies has also been down to rising energy costs for British growers.

British farmers are struggling to power their greenhouses which are used to grow specific crops during the colder months.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said shortages of some fruit and vegetables in UK supermarkets could be “the tip of the iceberg”.

Other food experts have warned that for shortages could become the norm in the UK due to the climate crisis as the world looks set to see more extreme floods, frosts, droughts and heatwaves.

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