British supermarket giants Tesco and Morrisons said they were rationing vegetable sales on Friday as shoppers tweeted their frustration over widespread shortages caused by bad weather in southern Europe. Courgettes, broccoli, aubergines and salads were either unavailable or in very short supply in a selection of supermarkets in central London.
"Sorry: Temporarily Out of Stock", read a sign on the lettuce shelf in a Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket chain, near St Paul's Cathedral. "Due to bad weather conditions in Spain, we are experiencing some availability issues, but are working with our suppliers to resolve them as quickly as possible," a Tesco spokesman told AFP.
"To make sure customers don't miss out, we are asking them to limit the number of iceberg lettuces they buy to three," he said. Morrisons, the fourth largest food retailer, said it too was imposing limits of three heads of broccoli and two iceberg lettuces per shopper.
"We have seen some bulk buying in our stores," a spokesman said. "We have therefore had a cap on sales of broccoli and iceberg lettuce to ensure we maintain good supplies for our regular customers," he said. At a Morrisons outlet in south London, one frustrated morning shopper, who declined to give her name, said vegetables were already almost out of stock. She said the few courgettes that were available were too expensive at £3.53 (4.1 euros, $4.4) per kilo. Prices have risen sharply in recent weeks as supermarkets have resorted to bringing in vegetables from further afield, including the United States.
Healthy eaters went online to vent their anger, using hashtags including courgettecrisis and lettucecrisis, while some younger consumers retorted that a vegetable shortage was no crisis at all.
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