The government’s food tsar has blamed Britain’s “weird supermarket culture” for shortages of certain vegetables.

Henry Dimbleby said “fixed-price contracts” between supermarkets and suppliers meant that when food is scarce, some producers sell less to the UK and more elsewhere in Europe.

But the body that represents supermarkets denied that business was hampered by such contracts.

Several supermarkets have limited sales of fresh produce in recent weeks.

Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are among those vegetables in scarce supply, largely because of extreme weather affecting harvests in Spain and North Africa.

Shortages are said to have been compounded by high energy prices impacting UK growers, as well as issues with supply chains.

They also come as households are being hit by rising prices, with food inflation at a 45-year high.

As an example of “market failure”, Mr Dimbleby, who advises the government on food strategy in England, said UK lettuce prices in supermarkets were kept stable, regardless of whether there was a shortage or over supply.

Tesco’s UK boss has warned that food price inflation could prove highly toxic for shoppers and lethal for those on a tight budget.

Matt Davies said: “Everybody should be very, very clear how damaging food inflation is to the economy, to retail businesses and manufacturing businesses and how lethal it could be for millions of people struggling to live from week to week.”

He spoke out after Tesco became embroiled in a public spat with one of its main suppliers, Unilever, after the maker of brands including Marmite and Persil demanded an across the board 10% rise in prices in light of the devaluation of the pound after the the EU referendum.

The two companies reached agreement on Friday after it emerged that Tesco was running low on stocks of more than 20 popular Unilever brands because the supplier halted deliveries when the supermarket would not agree to its price demand.

Davies, who was speaking at the Big Debate conference organised by grocery industry body IGD, said it was clear there were inflationary forces in the UK after the Brexit vote but would not say whether they would feed through to price rises on supermarket shelves.

Britain’s cash-strapped households have remained under pressure in the run-up to Christmas, as rising food prices held inflation at 2.7% in November.

Despite hopes that the squeeze on consumers’ finances would start to ease, the Office for National Statistics said the annual inflation rate was unchanged in November, at 2.7%, as measured on the consumer price index.

The ONS said the impact of cheaper petrol on consumers’ pockets was offset by higher household energy bills and the rising price of bread, cereals and vegetables.

The article goes on to tell us “Value is one of just four supermarket sub-brands that has more than £1bn in sales, and it is understood to be the biggest of all of them. The others are Tesco Finest, Asda Chosen by You and Waitrose Essentials, according to Kantar Worldpanel.

However, over the last 18 months Tesco in the UK has been struggling, with underlying sales falling. It has lost market share to Iceland, Asda, Sainsbury’s and many others. It admits its Value range looks tired compared with Waitrose Essentials and Morrisons’ M Savers range, which replaced its own cheap-looking Morrisons Value range.”

This article explains how our dependency on international trade to feed ourselves and the work of the supermarket in cunning “margin shift” are making it increasingly challenging for the poorest in society to feed themselves.

Still more justification for what Pembrokeshire Produce Direct and its inspiration Somerset Local Food Direct are trying to achieve.