Tesco has reported record sales of fruit, including berries, cherries, watermelons, pineapples, grapes, bananas thanks to the prolonged period of hot weather.
Tesco Fruit Category Buying Manager Simon Reeves said, “The extra demand for fruit that we’ve seen during the recent heatwaves in the last month has been unprecedented and is the highest we’ve ever seen within a three week period.
“The quality of the fruit from our growers including our berry and cherry growers here in the UK has been especially good this year on account of the extra sunshine and daylight hours which has also helped create such strong demand. We have been working with our fruit suppliers to make sure that our stores are well stocked as we expect demand to once again be very strong over the coming days.”
Wimbledon also led to the usual boost in sales of strawberries, with Waitrose reporting that strawberries and cream saw a 450 per cent uplift in sales during the tennis tournament. Will Torrent, Senior Innovation Chef at Waitrose, told the Independent, “Wimbledon is certainly serving up a win for sales, with major cultural and sporting moments like this really influencing customers.
“We’re seeing this play out with a huge demand for tennis staples including strawberries, clotted cream, and Pimm’s. For many, it’s about more than just a tasty treat; it’s about connecting to a sport and becoming part of a cultural phenomenon that extends far beyond the tennis courts.”
As the country sweltered in 30 deg. C plus temperatures, growers of all crops highlighted the problems caused by the hot weather, particularly those affected by the suddenly imposed abstraction bans on the Cam and Ely Ouse and Nar catchments in East Anglia.
Last month NFU Vice-President Rachel Hallos commented, “It’s yet another reminder of the increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather our farmers and growers are facing. [This] dry weather reinforces just how urgently we need long-term planning and investment in water resilience.
“Drought puts immense pressure on crops, livestock and grass growth and threatens the availability of homegrown fruit and veg. Investing in water infrastructure – from on-farm rainwater harvesting to more flexible abstraction rules – will help farmers manage these extremes, grow more fresh produce here in the UK and reduce reliance on imports from other water scarce countries.”
