Lidl has become the latest supermarket to impose limits on the numbers of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes customers can buy.

As with other shops, the German discount supermarket has blamed the shortages on weather conditions.

“As advised to our customers through signage in our stores last week, adverse weather conditions in Spain and Morocco have recently impacted the availability of certain salad items across the supermarket sector,” it said.

The measure is precautionary in nature it said, and availability is good across the majority of stores.

“Due to a recent increase in demand we have taken the decision to temporarily limit the purchase of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers to three items per person”, Lidl said. “This will help to ensure that all of our customers have access to the products they need.”

UK supermarkets have been called in to answer questions from government as fruit and vegetable shortages persist.

Representatives from major retailers experiencing shortages are to meet food and farming minister Mark Spencer on Monday afternoon.

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Lidl joins Tesco, Aldi, Asda and Morrisons who have all announced limits on some items in the past week.

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“I am calling in supermarket chiefs to find out what they are doing to get shelves stocked again and to outline how we can avoid a repeat of this”, Mr Spencer said.

Today’s meeting follows from conversations between the secretary of state and some of the main retailers on Friday.

Drought in the summer in Morocco and Spain followed by cold weather in winter has caused damaged crops. The two locations are where the UK meets much of its winter demand for salad vegetables.

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At the same time many UK farmers have reduced their greenhouse output due to high energy costs. Items such as tomatoes and peppers can be grown in the UK through winter via lit and heated greenhouses and with fertiliser derived from gas.

But the energy intensive industry has not been given the same government supports as other big energy users. As a result some UK farmers have been put off planting and planted later in the year.

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