Home-grown melons have hit wholesale markets across the UK with Britain increasingly showing a taste for exotic crops.

Weeks after pineapples grown in Cornwall and secret trials of kiwifruit in Kent caused a media storm, the arrival of British melons has created a stir.

Melons grown in Lichfield and Evesham have been in the news and product from the former source will hit the supermarkets.

Brighton wholesale market reports that Charentais melons are changing hands for 700p for 6s while one wholesaler on Liverpool market told FPJ the sme count was making 600p a box.

Staffordshire grower Stephen McGuffie, who supplies Marks & Sepncer with the product, visited melon farmers in Spain before undertaking the crop. He told The Times: “Temperature is key to getting the melons to grow quickly and get to a decent size, and sunshine is crucial for ripening the melons and turning them sweet…With the general rise in temperatures here, it was well worth it and something not done before.”

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