The summer season has been a rollercoaster of weather, with heavy rain alternating with warm sunshine. But this unpredictable climate has had an unexpected silver lining: a bumper crop of high-quality strawberries.
Following a rainy start to the summer, a period of warmer weather has caused a surge in the number of strawberries ripening for sale, according to a leading fruit buyer. A staggering 200 additional tonnes of strawberries from growers nationwide are now landing in supermarkets.
Mansfields, a fruit grower based in Chartham, Kent, reported that despite overcast skies, the quality of the strawberries was “very good” because the weather allowed the fruit more time to develop.
Lee Port, chief executive of Mansfields, explained: “The cold and wet spell earlier in the year, plus the recent mini-heatwave, has resulted in pushing more of our predicted crop volume into late July and early August.” He continued: “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 they are big, juicy and luscious.”
Tesco is one of the major supermarkets where shoppers can purchase surplus berry crops, joining the fight against food waste. Tesco’s berry buyer, Callum Baker, commented that the retailer is “glad to be able to provide them [strawberries] for customers.”
Those lucky enough to have attended Wimbledon this year may have noticed the strawberries and cream were even sweeter than usual. But you didn’t need to be at the tennis tournament to enjoy the best of them. Britons have taken to social media to share their summer berry finds in supermarkets.
One Lidl shopper took to X, formerly Twitter, to share their surprise at the strawberries being sold in stores, urging others to “look at the size of this strawberry from Lidl.” A Sainsbury’s customer wrote: “Thank you! After several years of buying and binning strawberries (and other fruit) from multiple retailers I bought a punnet on Tuesday and I’ve LOVED eating every single one. Finally! What a joy!” A second Lidl fan shared: “Buy British they say! Absolutely I say! Amazing strawberries Lidl GB.”
The extra juicy strawberries have been around for a few weeks now in the likes of Lidl, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Co-op, the latter being the first supermarket to sell British-only strawberries in-store. Berries, including strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, are the UK’s most popular fruit category, accounting for 28 percent of all fruit sales and an impressive annual value of £1.7 billion.
