Discount supermarket Lidl GB will lift all customer purchase limits on salad vegetables by Monday after weeks of industry shortages, it said on Friday.
Lidl's move follows the relaxation of limits by British rivals Asda and Morrisons earlier this week.
A hit to imports from disrupted harvests in southern Europe and north Africa due to unseasonal weather has been exacerbated by British farmers planting fewer crops under glass due to still high energy prices.
Last month, market leader Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl imposed limits on how many salad and fruit items shoppers could buy at one time and the government warned that shortages could last until the end of March.
Read More: Cold Weather, Bad Planning To Blame For UK Salad Crisis, Spain Says
Lifting Of Purchase Limits
Elsewhere, Asda has removed limits on shoppers buying cucumbers, lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberries.
As of Thursday, Asda was still limiting customers to a maximum of three packets of tomatoes and peppers.
But it said supply of these two products was also improving and it expected to be back to normal levels within a couple of weeks.
Morrisons has also removed a purchase limit on cucumbers but still has a cap of two items per customer across tomatoes, lettuce and peppers.
Growers have said, however, they expect some shortages to persist into April.
In January of this year, Lidl GB increased its commitment to UK food suppliers, saying it would spend £2 billion (€2.3 billion) more with them by 2025 than it previously projected.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM – your source for the latest fresh produce news. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
