The recent warm weather has boosted raspberry yields, prompting Tesco to buy extra volumes from Berry Gardens.
In a bid to prevent on-farm waste, the retailer has taken an extra 40 tonnes of the Driscoll Maravilla variety from the softfruit supplier, dropping the price of its larger 425g boxes to £3.
Berry Gardens has additional volume from its growing sites in Herefordshire, Kent, Staffordshire and Scotland, and according to Tesco berry buyer Jordan Blandford, the bonus yield could be in store for up to two weeks.
“Taking more crops from suppliers when they're in abundance and offering them to customersis part of our ongoing work to tackle food waste wherever it occurs,” said Blandford.
In the past 12 months, the supermarket chain has also taken bumper crops of strawberries, carrots, cauliflower, cherries, lettuce and celery.
“Customers benefitted from great prices; our farmers were happy we could take more from them,and we prevented good food from going to waste,” said Blandford.
