According to industry sources, shortages of fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes, are likely to last for several weeks.
Pictures of empty supermarket shelves have been circulating on social media for the past few days.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) blamed “difficult weather conditions” which have led to poor harvests in southern Europe and North Africa.
High energy prices have also had an impact on production.
Extreme weather conditions have been causing problems with the supply of some crops for months.
Last year’s European heatwave, for example, had a major impact on the supply of onions, which are normally grown and stored during the summer. As a result, prices have risen sharply.
More recently, unseasonably cold weather in southern Spain has affected supplies of crops such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
A significant proportion of UK consumption tends to come from this region at this time of year.
The usual fallback would be to buy more produce from Morocco, but production there has been impacted by flooding, while storms have caused ferry delays or cancellations.
Another important source of fresh produce is the Netherlands, where fruit and vegetables are grown in heated greenhouses. But high energy costs have caused growers to delay planting crops, making the overall situation worse.
Farmers in the UK face similar problems.
“There were a myriad of individual factors,” explains Nigel Jenney, executive director of the Fresh Produce Consortium, which represents around 700 companies. “Weather, fuel costs, packaging and distribution costs, energy costs.”
The extreme weather patterns in Spain and Morocco have been very disruptive, he says. But he says the industry is doing everything it can to offer the best products available.
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Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said the disruption was expected to last “a few weeks”.
Supermarkets are “capable of managing supply chain issues and are working with farmers to ensure customers have access to a wide range of fresh produce,” he added.
But other companies are also affected.
Wiltshire-based Heritage Fine Food Company, a wholesaler that supplies restaurants, cafes and schools in south-west England, said sourcing tomatoes has become “incredibly challenging”.
Cucumbers are “incredibly limited in supply,” while peppers don’t ripen, the company said.
According to managing director Ken Mortimer, many UK companies have contracts to purchase fixed quantities of imported products. But if they need more, they have to buy it on the open market, and the prices are prohibitively high.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that Britain has borne the brunt of the shortages, with little evidence of empty shelves elsewhere in Europe.
However, very high prices seem to be a widespread problem across the continent.
Industry sources suggest the UK could suffer from lower domestic production and more complex supply chains, as well as a price-sensitive market. But Brexit shouldn’t be a factor, they say.
The main impact of new border procedures for fruit and vegetable imports will only be felt in January – while imports from Morocco, which is outside the EU, are already subject to border controls.
“It’s not Brexit,” says Mr Mortimer, “or at least I don’t think so”.
The BBC has also reached out to the business organization Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) for an answer.
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