KOMKOMBER grower Tony Montalbano kneels in an empty greenhouse after heating costs became prohibitive.
He is one of hundreds of farmers who say that supermarkets paid so little that they could not pay more energy prices.
Growers claim that supermarkets used to pay so little for vegetables that they would have run into problems due to rising energy costs.
But pinching pennies has backfired after bad harvests Spain And Africa left stores short of stock.
There are now strict limits on grocery items such as cherry tomatoes.
Tony, 41, from Roydon, Essexhas had to lay off 25 employees.
He said: “Prices were so low that I couldn’t afford to grow.
“How can I survive with the prices they paid?
“I was told to accept it or the buyers would go to Spain.”
tesco And Aldi now limit sales of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers to three per customer.
Asda has limited sales of lettuce, salad bags, broccoli, cauliflower and raspberry punnets to three per customer, along with tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
And Morrisons has set limits of two for cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers.
Other large supermarkets have also been affected by the shortages, but have not yet introduced caps.
On Thursday, Secretary of State for the Environment Therese Coffey said the situation would “go on for about another two to four weeks” until the UK growing season starts again.