Warmest spring leads to crop flush of British strawberries

The heatwave sped up strawberry production by around two weeks and has left many UK growers with surplus fruit.

Tesco said that the chain will help growers by taking extra stock. Good news for shoppers is that the strawberries will go on sale for almost half price.

Tesco berries buying manager Callum Baker said: “Nothing shouts that summer is on the way louder than the availability of large, lush, sweet British strawberries – and even better if they’re being sold for cheaper.

“The fantastic UK weather recently has brought on the strawberries faster than expected with growers reporting that the extra hours of sunshine have made the fruit larger and sweeter than usual for this time of year.

“As soon as Tesco heard about the glut we swung into action to help out British growers and prevent any strawberries from going to waste on farms.

“With the extra amount of strawberries coming through right now we expect to sell about 25 per cent more crop this year than last.”

Surprise for many growers

The Met Office has reported that last month was the warmest April since records began 100 years ago with much of the UK experiencing temperatures 3 to 5C warmer than is normal for April.

Dave Slaughter, commercial operations manager of one of the growers supported by Tesco, F W Mansfield of Chartham, said: “The sudden growth spurt has taken many growers by surprise and couldn’t have been more different to last spring when we experienced a much colder and wetter start to the fruit growing season.

“The combination of far longer than usual sunshine together with the extra hours of sunlight in the last few weeks has resulted in a fine crop this year.

“With the predicted cooler weather and rain in the next week adding to the great sunshine we’ve had already, it looks like we will have a really good quality crop this year.”

The extra sunshine contributed to bumper strawberries right across Britain, including Kent, East and West Sussex, Berkshire, Wales, Norfolk and Herefordshire, as well as Scotland.

The 400g punnets of strawberries will go on sale at more than 750 Tesco stores, priced at £1.50 instead of the usual £2.50, the retailer confirmed.

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