Total Worldfresh says it will reassess the potential of selling greengages commercially into the UK market.

The UK-based grower-importer-distributor has confirmed that it has set up a trial site at the Mansfield & Son fruit farm - based near Canterbury, Kent - with the first trees already planted.

Greengages, which have a green flesh and are similar to plums in both texture and taste, date back to the Roman Empire and are seen as a traditionally British stone fruit.

Peter Bevan, research agronomist at Total Worldfresh, says it will take up to five years for the trees to reach full maturity and expects the initial results of the crop trials to be judged in 2016.

'While the season remains short and sweet, only lasting for around a month in mid-summer, it could eventually add an extra dimension for our growers and consumers.'

Bevan has been tracking the fruit's long history.

'Known in France as Reine Claude these became the basis of the crop which is exported to the UK today,” he confirms. 'But there are old records which show that they were also first grown in the UK near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, and were named after Sir Thomas Gage.'

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