Twice a week Helen Mitchell buys fresh fruits and vegetables from M & S Produce and Deli in Egg Harbor Township. Recently she's been noticing a change in the prices for vegetables.

"They've increased dramatically. Like the green beans...they are $2.00 more than they usually are, a dollar more a pound," said Mitchell.

Many produce suppliers and buyers are noticing some vegetables are in short supply. And when supply is down, demand goes up, which means you're paying more for vegetables like tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and peppers.

Vegetable growers blame the shortage on the unusually cold weather in Florida. Last January, The state experienced several days of freezing temeperatures, damaging many crops around the state.

Drew Parra, owner of M and S Produce, says the prices for those items have trippled over the past 8 weeks. Putting a squeeze on shopper's budgets. This comes at a particularly bad time because of the cool economy.

"It effects everybody. They're buying less, we're buying less. Some of them are trading for other items. Plum tomatoes are cheaper than regular round tomatoes. So if you see a plum tomato on your sandwich, don't be surprised. it's less expensive right now," said Parra.

Restaurant owners are also feeling the shortage. Like JO-JO's Italian Grille in Pleasantville. Owner Toni Giaconne buys produce from M and S and the high prices he says are cutting into his profits.

"I've never seen anything like this before...once in awhile I got one shortage one thing, onions lettuce or tomatoes. Now it's everything," said Giaccone.

Giaccone says since everything the serve uses fresh vegetables, they've made some substitutes to save money. For instance they use roma tomatoes in their food, instead of round tomatoes. If the shortage continues they may be forced to raise prices.

Mitchell says her family loves fresh vegetables but realizes she may have to make some changes.

"Not really I'm still going to buy what I want to buy I'm just not going to get more of what I usually get," Mitchell added.

Parra doesn't expect the market to correct itself until Memorial Day. He says the cost for grapes and other produce grown in Chile are on the rise due to the recent earthquake.