A leading Welsh greengrocer has said he has had the "best" February week ever as supermarket shoppers deal with shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables. Geraint Owen, who runs independent grocers Tatws Trading, has accused the big supermarkets of being "greedy" and not wanting to pay the market value for produce.
Supermarkets such as Lidl, Tesco Morrisons, Aldi and Asda say they have been forced to impose limits on the numbers of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes shoppers can buy, and have blamed bad weather for the issue.
But Mr Owen says there can be some issues at this time of year because it is between the end of the Spanish and Morocco tomato growing season and the start of the traditional British growing season, which can mean that some of the produce is more expensive.
The wholesale price has reportedly nearly doubled in price, averaging at £15 before and now as much as £30.
The grocer, who is based in Llandudno, has accused supermarkets of not being willing to increase how much they pay for the produce.
Writing on Twitter he said: "As an independent greengrocer we’ve had our best week ever in February. it’s fantastic to explain truthfully what’s going on to customers old and new."
He accused the supermarkets of "greed" and said that when people shop local they are told the truth.
"Someone came in the other day and asked if had peppers and asked how many they could buy. I told them they could have as many as they wanted.," he said. "We have got plenty of produce because we are willing to spend. Putting limits on is ridiculous, these supermarkets are running the country and telling us what we can and can't eat.
"You have seen it with the eggs, they are refusing to pay the right price to British producers so have gone to Italy to get their eggs. It shouldn't be allowed."
Meanwhile, the boss of supermarket chain Iceland provided a date when fresh fruit and vegetables will be readily available again in his stores.
Richard Walker said: "I urge people to bear with us for 2-3 weeks when the supply line gets back to normal."
Mr Walker explained he believes the shortage is due to a bout of bad weather in Morocco. He also issued a bleak response when Susanna asked what the message is to shoppers who can't get cucumbers, tomatoes or peppers today.
He said: "What can we do? Unfortunately I'll admit you can't buy everything frozen so we're just going to have to get used to it. That's the reality and we're trying to get it back to normal.
"Bear with us. A couple of weeks and we'll be back to normal."
Read next:
