The first local tomatoes of the new season were traded at Belgium’s Mechlin auction on Monday and raised €3,754.80 for the national Childhood Cancer Fund.

The Flandria Prince fruit was grown and sold by Scheers Tuinbouwbedrijf and the first 6kg tray was bought by Com-Aan for €99.9 a kilo and a further three trays were bought by Fruit Centrum Belgium, Wim Vandepoel and Continental at slightly lower per kilo prices. The auction itself then doubled the total donation.

The first fruit is almost a month behind last year’s due to low light levels and later planting dates.