Britain’s heatwave has produced a bumper crop of strawberries, cherries and blueberries, prompting a wave of shop discounts and lower prices for British farmers.
Strawberry growers said they were picking up to 30% more fruit than usual, and blueberry growers at least 50% more this week, as temperatures topped 40C in parts of England on Tuesday . Returns are expected to be double that of the same week last year over the coming week. Blackberry harvests are expected to be up 80% on the same time last year this week, according to the British Berry Growers Association.
English cherry harvests have also been pushed forward by around a fortnight because of the heat, trapping supermarkets that had ordered cheaper fruit from Spain, Turkey and elsewhere to cover this week and causing a glut in stores.
Extremely hot weather across much of England on Monday and Tuesday kept many shoppers away from stores, adding to overstocks.
Tesco said it was selling kilo boxes of cherries for £5 this week after agreeing to take surplus from British growers. Their regular 400g tins retail at £3. Sainsbury’s has 800g strawberries for £3 this week and Morrisons is selling 650g for £2.69.
Strawberry grower Alastair Brooks, managing director of Langdon Manor Farm, near Faversham in Kent, said: “It has been the biggest year for soft fruit with lots of sunshine.
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“Strawberries and cherries have progressed quite quickly. It has been hot this week. Usually when there’s been warm weather demand increases, but this time it’s been really warm and supply has outstripped demand.”
He said the warm nights had encouraged the strawberries to ripen faster than usual, making it difficult to keep track of picking, especially since workers had been on reduced hours some days this week due to the extreme heat.
Harry Hall, managing partner of the Hall Hunter Partnership, which grows strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries on farms in Berkshire and Surrey, said: “It’s been the definition of extreme. Last year we had the coldest April of history, this year is the hottest July. You have to be as resilient and robust to keep things going as ever,” he said. “The weather is definitely more extreme and you have to be prepared for anything.”
He said the group’s farms were picking between 40 tonnes and 50 tonnes of blueberries a day, when they would normally be picking between 25 tonnes and 30 tonnes a day at this time of year.
His crews were also harvesting up to 350 tonnes of strawberries this week, up from the 250 tonnes average. “It’s put a lot of pressure on picking and packing,” he said, with extra shifts added so the packer is now working 24 hours a day.
He said many supermarkets had switched to selling larger-than-usual 1kg or 650g, rather than the usual 400g, to clear stock.
Cherry growers said the glut of fruit meant lower prices for their crops, as the previous harvest had meant they were competing with cheap imports at a time when costs, including energy prices and fuel and workers’ wages had increased.
One cherry tree said: “We’ve had a good growing season but there’s been a lot of imports from Spain and that doesn’t normally affect us.”
Herefordshire-based cherry grower Simon Wells, who harvests later than growers in Kent and the Midlands, said: “There was a huge volume from English farms as we had cheap imports from Spain and Bulgaria.” He said supermarkets were not paying more for cherries despite rising costs due to greater competition from imports.
“Nine months or a year ago there were a lot of offers and there’s a plan at that fixed price and that doesn’t help us in an inflationary environment,” he said.