Writing as a farmer I am not in the slightest degree surprised that the supermarkets are running out of fresh produce.

It is as a direct result of the supermarkets demanding that they are supplied by our farmers at costs which are way below the actual cost of growing food in the UK and in many cases resulting in farmers and growers turning away from intensive vegetable and fruit production in favour of low intensity crops such as wheat, barley and rape.

The greed of the supermarkets and increasing labour costs have seen the demise of many horticultural enterprises on British farms.

Empty fruit and vegetable shelves at an Asda in east London. National Farmers' Union (NFU) deputy president Tom Bradshaw has warned that shortages of some fruit and vegetables in UK supermarkets could be "the tip of the iceberg". Soaring energy bills exacerbated by the war in Ukraine have also put off some UK vegetable growers, he added.

It is obvious that the supermarkets prefer to buy from foreign farmers where, because of reduced quality controls, the cost of production is lower than here in the UK.

As everyone knows we have strict labour laws and even stricter environment controls which make our production costs way more expensive than many foreign countries, where not only do they have much lower labour costs, but also have the advantage of a better climate.

Perhaps this present shortage may well cause British supermarkets to rethink their purchasing agendas, do the patriotic thing, and buy all their temperate fruit and veg from British farmers rather than foreign suppliers.

This would enable growers in this country to thrive again and so obliterating the risk of British customers running out of food in the future

I am sad to report that we are facing an even bigger threat to our food production than supermarket price cuts and that is the new Government’s agricultural policies which are designed to take good agricultural land out of food production and convert it to rabbit warrens, beetle banks and wild flower meadows.

These so-called environmental protection measures will inevitably ensure that we are permanently short of British produced food in the future as a direct result of pandering to the wishes of the climate control fanatics and the green brigades.

The resulting debacle caused by the supermarket’s buying policies and the loony tune desire of the green lobby to stop food being grown on good agricultural land here in the UK, will between them, result eventually in starvation rearing its ugly head once again here in the United Kingdom.

From: Jarvis Browning, Fadmoor, York

As quoted by our home producers (The Yorkshire Post, February 25) it’s the supermarkets that are holding the British farmers to ransom by their tight budget margins without any movement to renegotiate if cost changes, so the farmers end up out of pocket not the consumers.

But it looks like they have shot themselves in the foot.Maybe they will have learnt a lesson if it’s not too late. One Kent farmer has already grubbed up 50 acres off fruit trees due to the supermarkets wanting to import a cheaper alternative.

From Jenny Eaves, Balby, Doncaster.

It seems incredible that supermarkets are backing foreign imports over British growers. Whatever you think of Brexit, surely this is no one had this in mind when they voted for it.

Supermarkets must rethink their buying strategies to support British farmers: Yorkshire Post Letters