The truckers’ strike in Sicily may have brought the Italian island to a standstill but its effects are also being felt in Malta with supermarket stocks slowly dwindling.

The strike action is blocking ports and preventing trucks from loading goods, including those destined for Malta, hitting, among others, the five Lidl supermarkets across the island. Shoppers have reported that shelves are half empty.

Questions sent to Lidl’s media centre based in Italy were met with a dry reply: “Thank you for your interest in Lidl but we do not wish to make a statement on this matter.”

The Times visited a number of Lidl shops and observed that they were out of fresh produce, which is normally brought in every day on trailers from Sicily. The freezers were practically empty and meat stocks had shrunk.

Sources close to the supermarket chain said the stores’ stocks of food with a longer shelf life were also running out.

The strike action was ordered by the association representing Sicilian truck drivers, Associazione Imprese Autotrasportatori Siciliani. It is expected to last until Thursday, unless a solution to the problem is found before then.

The truck drivers have blocked entrances and exits of the ports in Pozzallo and Catania and also jammed roads and motorways in Palermo.

The truck drivers’ main gripe is the price of fuel which they believe has reached “unsustainable levels”.

They are also saying that the present system means the cost of transporting goods is higher than that of the actual product.

One truck driver, Costa Manfredini, said they wanted the Italian government to do something about their complaints. No action had been taken so far, he said, despite a strike action that has lasted nearly two weeks.

The road blocks caused by heavy goods vehicles were starting to break up but it would take time to return to normal, he added.

Most of the goods in Italy are transported by road. Initial estimates by experts in Italy show that the Italian agricultural sector has so far lost about €200 million in revenue.