Cheshunt, England, 2015-3-6 — /EPR Retail News/ — The first home grown strawberries of the year will arrive in supermarkets on Thursday March 5 – a week earlier than usual.
Fine weather with good levels of sunshine this week on top of a generally mild winter have helped growers produce the early fruit.
And with temperatures set to reach 13C this weekend, the arrival of the strawberries at Tesco stores is a clear sign that spring is around the corner.
Traditionally, the earliest home grown strawberries come from either Kent, Sussex or Hampshire but this year growers in Wales have won the race to produce the first UK fruit of the year.
Tesco berry buyer Harriet Turnbull said: “Shoppers will be able to get an early taste of summer thanks to the arrival of these sweet, luscious strawberries.
“We have worked with growers to select a particular variety of strawberry that grows well in glasshouses and produces perfectly shaped, ruby red fruit.
“This is a real coup for Wales which only began growing strawberries on a commercial scale two years ago. These berries, grown in the Rhymney Valley, near Cardiff, will put Wales on the UK’s strawberry growing map.”
The variety of Tesco’s Welsh grown strawberries is called Driscoll’s Lusa and has been selected because of its consistent, sweet taste.
Thanks to milder winters recently, Britain is also enjoying longer fruit growing seasons.
The British strawberry season can now last for up to nine months – a whole four months longer than last decade years ago when winters were longer and harsher.
Harriet Turnbull added: “The arrival of the first homegrown strawberries brings about a real feel good factor – not only does it herald the start of British Summer Time but it is also the start of the UK produce growing season.”
The Tesco strawberries will cost £3 for a 250g punnet.
Note to editors:
Glasshouses used in the production of the strawberries use environmentally friendly Bio Mass boilers which heat the glasshouses.
Bio Mass boilers are fuelled by sustainable energy such as wood chip and have the additional advantage of reducing the consumption of traditional energy souces by up to 60 per cent.
For more information please contact the Tesco Press Office on
01992 644645
We are a team of over 500,000 people in 12 markets dedicated to providing the most compelling offer to our customers.
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