Juicy start to the season for plump, sweet raspberries

THE start of the British raspberry season is delivering bigger and sweeter fruit than previous years thanks to the warm and settled spring, producers say.

Growers say the season has begun with 65 per cent more British raspberries on supermarket shelves compared with the same period last year, when the weather was poorer.

This spring was the fifth warmest on record for the UK, thanks largely to record-breaking overnight temperatures which suited berry growers well.

Nick Marston, chairman of the industry body British Berry Growers, said: “The upcoming season looks great for consumers. The warmer, earlier start to spring was ideal for the young raspberry plants and the recent weather is just right to produce excellent crops.”

The leading varieties now grown in the UK can fruit for up to five months, compared to traditional types that typically produce fruit for up to six weeks.

The extended fruit period means consumers can buy British raspberries from the start of June through to the end of October. Last year Britons bought more than 12,500 tons of British-grown raspberries in an industry which is worth £364million.

Raspberries are sometimes seen as the poor relation of the strawberry, more tart and less likely to appear in a punnet at Wimbledon or Henley. But this year’s warm and settled spring – the UK’S fifth warmest on record – has produced a bumper crop of bigger and sweeter fruit. Supermarket shelves are groaning under a 65 per cent increase in raspberries compared with the same period last year.

In the past, the season for traditionally grown berries lasted just a few weeks. Now British varieties can fruit for up to five months before imports take over. Their preponderance and longevity are certainly welcome for both consumers and growers, but the anticipatory sense that they were a benison of high summer only has been lost.