Floods, snow and storms have hit Europe's vegetable stock resulting in UK supermarkets rationing the quantity that can be bought during one shop.
Morrisons imposed a limit of three iceberg lettuces (cabbages) and three heads of broccoli per customer across each of its 492 UK stores. Some Tesco stores are also carrying notices capping the number of lettuces to three per person.
The notice reads: "Due to continued weather problems in Spain there is a shortage of iceberg lettuce. To protect the availability to all our customers, we are limiting bulk purchases to three per person. We apologise for any inconvenience caused".
The price of many of the vegetables have also increased as a result of the Europe-wide shortage.
Neil Baradwah, an Indian-origin businessman who runs Cambridge Fruit Company, told BBC the problem had hit his wholesale business.
"The restaurants, the cafes, the sandwich shops, they all want iceberg lettuce to use and the price has just gone up. When we have to pay more, we can't mark it up too much, so it affects our profits. It is the first time in 11 years I have seen any salad produce come from America. Normally at this time of year it comes from Spain or Holland, but the US is quite something," he said.
The shortage began with aubergines but has now spread to other vegetables and salad.
An extreme mix of drought followed by flooding and freezing conditions has severely affected growers in southern Spain, while poor conditions have also hit farmers in Italy, Greece and Turkey.
Experts have warned that if the weather does not improve in the coming weeks the problem may continue until April.
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