British Strawberries Smiling

The sunniest UK spring on record has led to a bumper crop of extra sweet British strawberries.

The news means that growers have been left with more of the crop than planned but now Tesco has stepped in to help by putting 1 kilo boxes on sale from beginning of June for £3.

As a result of the extra availability Tesco has bought an extra 300 tons of British grown strawberries.

Tesco berry buyer Laura Mitchell said:

"The fantastic UK weather and extra sunshine so far this spring has brought on British strawberries faster than expected with many growers seeing production 20 per cent higher than normal for this time of year.

"And it's resulted in exceptionally good quality and sweet strawberries with sugar levels boosted by the plants enjoying the longer, sunny days.

"British strawberries have a great reputation for being the best in the world because of our perfect growing conditions and the extra crop we have just bought are classic - sweet, juicy and luscious."

As soon as Tesco heard about the glut it moved to help British growers and prevent any strawberries from going to waste on farms.

The extra sunshine contributed to bumper strawberries right across Britain including Kent, Essex, Sussex, Hampshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Lancashire, Scotland and Wales.

One grower, Phillip Busby, pictured, of Busby Partners, Chilcote, Warwickshire, who've supplied Tesco strawberries for over 25 years said:

"Tesco is helping the growers move excess crop, saving on food waste and with quality being so good it's a really great offer for their customers."

Note: Currently a standard 400g punnet of strawberries at Tesco cost £2 or two for £3.

TESCO AND FOOD WASTE

• Tesco has said that it is committed to ensuring that no food that is safe for human consumption is wasted. Their UK Community Food Connection initiative, in partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare and social enterprise FoodCloud, has donated the equivalent of over 48 million meals since launch in 2016.
• They say that they work with their suppliers to make as much use of their crops as possible. Tesco Farm Brands and Perfectly Imperfect ranges are said to make good use of the part of the crop that previously fell outside Tesco specifications.

In December 2019 Tesco widened their specifications on potatoes and added customer messaging on pack to take as much crop as possible from their flood hit growers in eastern England.