The first JPMO sendings of 2003 Jersey Royale loose round tomatoes were sold by A&N Pennington at Manchester's Smithfield wholesale market on Monday and sold briskly at up to 900p a box.

The first fruit is expected to be on Sainsbury's shelves this weekend, after the chain's buyers sampled the toms on Tuesday. The Jersey Royale tomatoes are being supplied to Sainsbury's through the new Fresh Link Marketing alliance of five of the group's UK tom suppliers.

This year the Jersey crop of loose round tomatoes - split between the Jersey Royale and Encore varieties - will be grown on nine hectares on the Channel island.

JPMO also has 3.5ha of vine tomatoes - Elegance and Aranca, which have already appeared on JS shelves this year in its Taste the Difference range - and 2ha of beef toms (Quest), which are due to start later this month.

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