FOOD shoppers in Denbighshire and across the UK have been confronted with near-empty fruit and vegetable aisles as many supermarkets face shortages.

A shortage of tomatoes affecting UK supermarkets is widening to other fruit and vegetables and is likely to last weeks, retailers have warned.

The shortages are connected to difficult weather conditions in the South of Europe and Northern Africa which in turn has disrupted the harvest for some fruit and vegetables including tomatoes and peppers.

Tesco and Aldi have introduced limits of three per customer on sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

Asda is limiting customers to three on sales of lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflowers and raspberry punnets, along with tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

Morrisons has set a limit of two on cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers.

Other major UK supermarkets have not announced any limits.

We visited the Co-operative in Ruthin to see what the situation was like there. This was just before 2pm on Wednesday, February 22.

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There was one empty box of "easy peeler" oranges and cherries, but the store was well-stocked with pears, apples, bananas, and other types of orange.

There were plenty of onions to choose from, but the shop was low on broccoli, carrots and beetroot.

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Tomatoes, blackberries and "sweetheart cabbage" had also sold out.

According to the British Retail Consortium, disruption is expected to last a few weeks.

Retailers have stressed that buying limits are temporary until supplies improve in the coming days or weeks, helped by the UK moving into its growing season.