Supermarkets are offering discounts to help shift surplus product as sunshine brings on more fruit
A bumper crop of British strawberries has been brought on by the recent warm weather.
Following a cold and wet spring and early summer, hot weather this month has led to a crop flush of British strawberries, leading to supermarkets stepping in to buy surplus crop.
The extra sunshine has contributed to a bumper harvest across the country including Kent, West and East Sussex, Hampshire, Staffordshire and Herefordshire.
Tesco said it has bought an extra few hundred tonnes of British-grown strawberries, putting 1kg punnets on sale for £4.50 and 400g punnets for the Clubcard price of £1.90. The regular price for a 400g punnet is £2.50.
The supermarket said that taking more crops from suppliers when they’re in abundance and offering them to customers is part of its ongoing work to tackle food waste.
Berry buyer Callum Baker said: “After all the recent rain and cloudy start to the summer, last week’s mini heatwave brought the strawberries on very quickly and meant that many growers suddenly had more than they expected.
“We work closely with our growers to make sure they are paid a fair price for their crops but also look for opportunities like this so that we can offer our customers great deals.
“With decent weather and temperatures in the mid-20s forecast for the coming week we’re glad to be able to provide them for our customers.”
Mansfields lauds good-quality crop
Kent-based fruit grower Mansfields said that despite the recent cloudy weather the quality of its strawberries was very good and that the fruit had more time to develop.
Chief executive Lee Port said: “The cold and wet spell earlier in the year plus the recent mini-heatwave has resulted in pushing more of our predicted crop volume into late July and early August. This will result in an abundance of strawberries – roughly an extra 40 to 50 tonnes per week until the end of August.
“Thanks to Tesco, these surplus strawberries won’t go to waste and the good news is that they are big, juicy and luscious.”
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