Empty shelves at Lidl and Eurospin as bad weather stops daily ferry supply

Updated 5pm

Lidl and Eurospin shoppers on their weekly grocery run found empty shelves on Sunday and Monday morning, with most fresh produce unavailable.

By Sunday morning, some Lidl outlets were out of most fresh produce, including fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as meat such as beef, pork and poultry products.

Times of Malta visited Lidl outlets on Monday morning, finding bare shelves, with several other products, including some types of pasta, now also out of stock.

Fridges usually storing fresh meat were mostly empty by Monday morning. Photo: Jonathan Borg

The situation at Eurospin was similar, with many dairy products also unavailable.

Many dairy products were out of stock at Eurospin. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Some shoppers took to Facebook, posting their own photos of empty shelves.

Both LIDL and Eurospin are known to import several products from Sicily on a daily basis. 

In a statement, Lidl Malta said the shortages were "due to unfavourable weather conditions in the Mediterranean". 

Both LIDL and Eurospin are known to import food from Sicily. Photo: Jonathan Borg

It continued: "These conditions resulted in the cancellation of scheduled maritime transport services, which are essential for our daily replenishment cycles."

The supermarket said new consignments are on the way and apologised for any inconvenience caused to customers. 

Readers reported shelves at various Lidl stores being restocked by late on Monday afternoon. 

Cancelled ferries 

On Sunday, Virtu Ferries cancelled all trips between Malta and Sicily, citing inclement weather. When contacted, a spokesperson told Times of Malta that ferry trips were back to normal on Monday, with the company operating an extra round trip on the day.

Għaqda Bdiewa Attivi, an NGO representing farmers, described the situation as "the consequences of the country's over-dependence on imported products for its food supply" in a Facebook post on Monday morning.

Meanwhile, the disruptions appear to have extended beyond food produce, with a customer notice on Lidl's mobile app warning customers that "some non-food items, starting from Monday are temporarily unavailable due to delivery delays"

Questions were sent to both Lidl and Eurospin.