UK strawberry sales and production are running well ahead of last year as fine weather helps volumes pick up from a slow start.
Nick Marston, md at KG Fruits reports production last week 10 per cent up year on year and sales 20 per cent up, while this week production is set to rise by 35 per cent on the same period last year and sales by 22 per cent, so reducing the reliance on imports.
“Up to the week beginning May 28, we were 10 days behind on last year in production and we have caught that up now and will be exceeding it over the next several weeks,” said Marston.
Growers have welcomed the cooler temperatures in the middle of the week. “The high temperatures at the start of the week brought fruit forward,” said The Summerfruit Company’s, Scott Woolford. “But growers are pleased to have some cooler conditions so that they can pick ripe fruit in time,” he said. “The fear was that it was ripening too quickly before they could pick.”
He believes that the World Cup is having a positive effect on sales so far with uptake last weekend very strong. “We are expecting another good weekend this weekend,” he said. “We seem to be absorbing the World Cup effect and sales are good across the country.”
Encouragingly so far there have been no flushes with fruit coming on all at once from different production areas. “Two weeks ago, the south-west had the better weather and led the way, then we had a really good supply of fruit from the south-east,” said Woolford. “And Scotland will start in volume over the next week to 10 days.”
Meanwhile, raspberries are just beginning to be picked in volume in Kent and the West Country. “Demand is very strong already, and we expect it to pick up quite rapidly,” said Marston. “The maincrop will be on stream from the end of June or early July.”
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