UK consumers last week bought a record volume of Tesco fruit and salads as they shaped up for the summer holidays, the retailer said.
The news follows Asda's recent announcement of record fresh produce sales the previous week.
Wimbledon fortnight saw strawberry sales rocket, with a staggering 3.5 million punnets sold through Tesco stores during the first week of the tennis tournament.
Last week also saw Tesco shift more than 4m prepared salad bags, 2.5m cucumbers, 1.5m cherry tomato punnets and 1m punnets of prepared fruit.
Peter Durose, Tesco produce director, talked of “incredible demand” and said: “Wimbledon fortnight always creates the biggest demand of the year for strawberries but throw in some great weather as well and many people seem to literally switch their diets and eat more salad and fruit. Not only are these foods healthy but they don’t cost a lot.”
A high proportion of sales of prepared salads and fruit came at lunchtime, indicating that the healthy-eating trend carried through to the office environment, he said.
And with further good weather predicted, Durose said Tesco’s suppliers are on full alert to deliver more fruit and veg should demand continue to increase.
