FOOD shoppers in Conwy 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 Asda in Llandudno to see what the situation was like there. This was just after 4pm on Wednesday, February 22.

The store was out of tomatoes completely; there were 18 empty crates. There were only 12 loose bananas on display and no strawberries aside from two small plastic tubs. 

There were no loose potatoes; there were 12 empty crates in this section. There were some bags of baking pototoes to purchase and well as big bags. 

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There were two empty crates where beans should have been. 

No cauliflower, red onion, sweetcorn or nectarines.

There were lots of apples on display, especially Royal Gala Apples which were piled high. 

The store was also very low on peppers. 

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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.