Sainsbury’s has begun stocking British melons after a good weather fuelled a strong home-grown crop.
Grown in small volumes in Kent, the orange-fleshed melons benefited from a hot, dry spring this season.
Sainsbury’s has claimed a “record-breaking” yield for the fledgling UK fruit with the Chanterais and Cantaloupe planted on 4.5 hectares of land.
The melons went into 100 Sainsbury’ stores on Friday, with a predicted harvest of 10,000 fruits on sales over the next six-weeks.
According to seed specialist Claude Guerin, some of the vines are producing up to eight fruits each, two or three more than would be expected from crops in Spain and the south of France.
Following this first successful large-scale British harvest, Sainsbury’s is now working with its farmers to trial even more exotic varieties including Persian, Heirloom and Turkish melons.
Sainsbury’s fruit buyer Finbar Cartlidge said: “Buying British melons means fresher fruit for our shoppers. As the fruit is grown in the UK they arrive at our stores far quicker than our imported fruit from Spain so the fruit is fresher.”
Chanterais and Cantaloupe melons are on sale priced £2.29.
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