Prices fall as UK heatwave produces glut of soft fruit

theguardian.com:

The UK heatwave has produced a glut in strawberry, cherry and blueberry harvests prompting a wave of discounts in stores and lower prices for British farmers.

Strawberry farmers said they were picking as much as 30% more fruit than usual, and blueberry growers at least 50% more this week as temperatures topped 40C on Tuesday in some parts of England. Yields are expected to be double that of the same week last year in the week ahead. Blackberry harvests are expected to be up 80% on the same time last year this week according to the British Berry Growers association.

English cherry harvests have also been brought forward by about a fortnight by the heat, catching out supermarkets who had ordered in cheaper fruit from Spain, Turkey and elsewhere to cover this week and causing a glut in stores.

Extreme hot weather across a large swathe of England on Monday and Tuesday prompted many shoppers to stay away from stores, adding to overstock.

Tesco said it was selling kilo boxes of cherries for £5 this week after agreeing to take surplus stock off British growers. Its usual 400g punnets sell at £3. Sainsbury’s has 800g punnets of strawberries for £3 this week and Morrisons is selling 650g for £2.69.

Strawberry grower Alastair Brooks, managing director of Langdon Manor Farm near Faversham in Kent, said: “It has been the most tremendous year for soft fruit with lots of sunshine.

“Strawberries and cherries have come forward quite quickly. It has been warm this week. Normally when there has been warm weather demand rises but this time it has been extremely warm and supply has outstripped demand.”

He said the warm nights had encouraged strawberries to ripen faster than usual making it difficult to keep up with picking, especially as workers