Weeks of sunshine and warm spring temperatures have caused the British strawberry season to arrive ahead of schedule.
The first home-grown fruits arrived on supermarket shelves on Friday, offering shoppers an unusually premature taste of summer.
Retailers expect to stock nearly half of the UK by next week, while the remaining areas should covered by mid-May. The early supply will replace imports from countries such as Spain and Morocco.
“Cool nights and warm sunny days create the perfect conditions for growing sweet, full-flavoured strawberries and that’s exactly what this weekend’s forecast is bringing,” said Neil Donaldson, the commercial director of Hall Hunter, which operates farms around the UK.
“Thanks to these ideal conditions, we’re expecting a 30 per cent increase in strawberries coming off our farms. It’s a fantastic start to the UK strawberry season, and we’re hopeful these great conditions will continue.”
In previous years, persistent rain and low temperatures have delayed British products until as late as August.
Kathleen Cornmell, a nutritionist, said British strawberries “simply taste better than those flown in from abroad”. She added: “They are picked when ripe, rather than early for transport, which means they are not only sweeter but also richer in nutrients like vitamin C and antioxidants. This is certainly one of the earliest starts to the British strawberry season.”
The Summer Berry Company, a grower based in Colworth near Chichester, said consumers should expect strawberries to be “particularly sweet” this year. Bartosz Pinkosz, its operations director, said: “With the unsettled weather in March, the fruit has spent more time on the plant — and the longer the berry is on the plant, the sweeter it gets. That all points to excellent flavour and quality in this year’s strawberries.”
LIA TOBY/PATesco said shelves in Surrey, Kent, Herefordshire and some London branches were now full of British produce. It expects to receive 300 tonnes of UK-grown fruit next week, or roughly a million punnets, more than double the volume of three weeks ago.
Callum Baker, the grocer’s strawberry buyer, said: “The start of the outdoor British strawberry season is a huge feel-good moment in the year as it means summer is just around the corner, with many months ahead of outdoor living.”
Over the weekend temperatures are expected to exceed 20C in major cities such as London, Manchester and Birmingham.
Andrea Bishop, a spokesperson for the Met Office, said: “The weather into next week looks often fine and dry, with plenty of sunny spells, though some showers are possible on Sunday and Monday, especially in the northwest and eastern areas. It will feel warm or very warm for many at first, particularly away from windward coasts, before temperatures trend closer to average by midweek, with cooler conditions along some eastern coasts.”
