The recent spell of warm weather after a rainy and cloudy start to the summer has provided perfect growing conditions in Britain for as much as 200 tonnes of surprise “big, juicy, luscious” strawberries heading to shop shelves, a leading supplier has said.
“The cold and wet spell earlier in the year, plus the recent mini heatwave, have resulted in pushing more of our predicted crop volume into late July and early August,” said Lee Port, the chief executive of the Kent-based fruit grower Mansfields.
“This will result in an abundance of strawberries – roughly an extra 40 to 50 tonnes a week until the end of August. The good news is that they are big, juicy and luscious.”
In May the trade body British Berry Growers (BBG) said tennis fans at Wimbledon, where strawberries with cream is an annual tradition, could expect juicier fruits this year after the wet and dark winter slowed growing times.
Nick Marston, the chair of the BBG, said that while this year’s harvest had taken about a fortnight longer to appear on the shelves, the delay meant British-grown strawberries ripened and flowered more gradually, resulting in unusually large, juicy berries.
However, despite this year’s bumper crop, the longer-term outlook for the wider industry is more worrying. Last week the BBG warned that British growers were finding it increasingly difficult to survive amid rising costs and poor pay from supermarkets.
A survey by the industry body, which represents farmers producing 95% of the berries sold in the UK, suggested that 40% of British growers of strawberries and raspberries could go out of business by the end of 2026.
If problems are not addressed, the BBG warned of “a future massive reduction in the supply of fresh British berries”. More than a third of those surveyed – 37% – are already considering reducing their production or moving out of berry farming entirely, while 39% said their relationship with retailers had never been this bad, according to the study.
Strawberries, along with raspberries, blueberries and blackberries, continue to be the most popular fruit item in shoppers’ baskets, with the biggest market share – at 28% – of all fruit sold in the UK.
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Over the past 12 months, shoppers spent a record £847m on strawberries, Kantar figures show.
