Tomorrow the supermarket’s Oxford Street food hall will be the first store in the country to stock British cherries, with supplies of the Summersun variety.
Grown in Ledbury, Herefordshire, the cherries will be rolled out to Waitrose branches across the UK in the coming weeks.
Waitrose praised its main cherry grower Haygrove for working tirelessly on the crop during the recent months of fickle weather to pick the cherries a few weeks earlier than normal.
However, the full season for British cherries is still running slightly late given the bad weather of previous weeks.
Nicki Baggott, Waitrose buyer said the supermarket had made a commitment to its suppliers to stock only British cherries once the season was up and running.
“We’ve worked closely with our suppliers to try and extend the season from beyond 5-8 weeks and we hope we can achieve that this year,” she added.
Baggott says the supermarket has doubled its British cherry sales in the last two years.
“And we expect to see growth in double digits again this year.”
The Summersun British cherries will retail at the Oxford Street store for £4.49 / 215g.
