As the first English strawberries from protected cultivation hit the shelves, growers have warned that low light levels have held crops back, and it is too soon to predict what the main season may hold.
“We have only just started picking the fruit from our glasshouses,” said Sandy Booth, CEO of New Forest Fruit, as the company supplied its first punnets of fruit to Sainsbury’s. “It is much too early to predict what kind of volumes we will have this season.”
He added that the wet winter weather could also lead to problems: “This weather encourages more trouble from pests and disease; the wet warm winter means more problems have over wintered than normal, meaning problems will start earlier as they wake up instead of being frosted out. We are probably running two weeks behind at the moment due to low light levels, but hopefully nature will help us eventually. Being a grower means being forever an optimist.”
Last year the New Forest Fruit Company launched a new dried snack product: New Forest Fruit Snack. “The fruit is grown, processed and packed on site here. Despite a few teething problems, we are hopefully on our way now,” commented Sandy.