Record sun fuels sweet UK strawberries
Agencies
British strawberry farmers say this year's record-breaking spring sunshine and warm days have yielded the cream of the crop, with a bigger and sweeter harvest than usual. Long periods of sun and cool nights provided 'perfect' conditions for the strawberry harvest, according to James Miller from WB Chambers Farms. The dry and pleasant weather also boosted insect pollination, which further improves the quality and shape of the berries, Miller explained. 'They're bigger and sweeter this year than we've seen in previous years,' said Miller, the commercial director for one of the country's biggest berry producers.
At one farm near Dartford in Kent, southeast England, rows of strawberry plants drooped with the weight of the gleaming red fruit housed in insulating polytunnels. As farmhands made their way meticulously down the semi-circular white tunnels, punnets were filled with ripe strawberries—some the size of small fists. The weather has resulted in 'super berry size and super flavour,' said Nick Marston, chairman of British Berry Growers, which represents most of the UK's soft fruit farms. 'I've been in the berry industry for 30 years and this is one of the best springs I've ever seen, in terms of both the weather and also the crop,' Marston told AFP.
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