Warm weather sparks bumper harvest of British strawberries

THE nation is enjoying a glut of British strawberries with yields 30 per cent higher than expected due to the mild May.

Supermarkets have cut prices and been offering super-sized punnets in their attempts to offload as much of the bumper crop as possible.

Senior strawberries buyer at Asda, Barrie Jones, said: ‘The growers we work with have had to harvest much of our strawberry crop a lot earlier than expected.

‘We initially thought there would be a mountain of strawberries on the farm leftover which supermarkets couldn’t sell, so it’s great we’ve been able to work with our growers to come up with a solution.’

Asda has introduced 700g punnets costing £2.50, alongside its normal 300g ones.

Sainsbury’s is also offering the giant punnets and has cut the cost of 400g of strawberries from £2 to £1.50.

While strawberries can be imported, the value of buying British is the fruit gets from farm to kitchen more quickly – while the fruit is at its sweetest and freshest.