Strawberry fans are being warned over a so-called “giant” bumper crop.
09:03, 18 May 2025Updated 17:47, 18 May 2025
Strawberry fans are being warned over a so-called “giant” bumper crop.
An alert has been issued to anyone buying strawberries at UK supermarkets – from Tesco and Morrisons to Sainsbury’s and Asda and M&S this summer. Strawberry fans are being told of a so-called “giant” bumper crop in England this summer.
Strawberries are reportedly huge in size this year, with growers admitting they may not even fit in mouths. UK growers have said to the Guardian that they have “never seen anything like it”.
Bartosz Pinkosz, the operations director at the Summer Berry Company, said: “We had the darkest January and February since the 70s but then the brightest March and April since 1910. From March onwards it was really kind of perfect for tunnel strawberries. The berries are between 10% and 20% larger.”
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Pinkosz said its strawberry plants are yielding “giant” 50g berries you “cannot fit in your mouth”. Nick Marston, the chair of the industry body British Berry Growers, said: “We’re seeing very good size, shape, appearance, and most of all, really great flavour and sugar content, which is what consumers want when they buy British strawberries.”
He added: “I’m always a little cautious of saying strawberries are 20% bigger because there’s an average involved and some crops will be slightly smaller than others. But I think it would be fair to say the very nice sunshine, the cool overnight temperatures, are ideal for fruit development.”
“The slower the development of the fruits, the more time to expand the cells and create the bigger berry. What we are now seeing is something I have never seen in 19 years, which is consistently larger berries,” he said. As well as the giant nature of the fruits, Marton had a secondary warning.
He spoke of fears water shortages could cause issue for some growers. He went on and said: “It has been a perfect start to the strawberry season for us … I have genuinely never seen a harvest produce such large berries consistently. Some are supersized – growing to the size of plums or even kiwi fruits.”
Until recently, the most popular strawberry in the UK was a Dutch variety called Elsanta. Resistant to disease and giving high, consistent yields, the breed was popular with growers. However, a belief amongst many consumers that Elsanta was rather bland led to growers and retailers looking for a suitable alternative.
It comes ahead of Wimbledon in July, which will see tennis fans enjoy the fruit with cream or sugar.
“Our world-famous berries are hand-picked and delivered to the All England Club each morning where they are inspected by our Food & Drink team to make sure only the best are served to our guests,” the website confirmed.