Brit greenhouse owners stop growing fruit and veg after huge energy costs
CUCUMBER grower Tony Montalbano kneels in an empty greenhouse after the cost of heating it became unaffordable.
He is among hundreds of farmers who say supermarkets paid so little, they could not pay spiralling energy prices.
Growers claim supermarkets previously paid so little for greens they would have been sunk by spiralling energy costs.
But the penny-pinching has backfired after poor harvests in Spain and Africa left shops short of stock.
There are now strict limits on groceries like cherry tomatoes.
Tony, 41, from Roydon, Essex, has been forced to lay off 25 members of staff.
He said: “Pricing was so low I could not afford to grow.
“How can I survive on the prices they were paying?
“I was told to accept it or the buyers would go to Spain.”
Tesco and Aldi are now limiting sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to three per customer.
Asda has capped sales of lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflowers and raspberry punnets to three per customer, along with tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
And Morrisons has set limits of two on cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuces and peppers.
Other major supermarkets have also been hit by the shortages but have not yet introduced caps.
On Thursday, Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said the situation would “last about another two to four weeks,” until the UK growing season restarts.