Giant strawberries ‘you cannot fit in your mouth' coming to supermarkets

Yahoo

18-05-2025

Giant strawberries you 'cannot fit in your mouth' are coming to supermarket shelves after the perfect weather for growing the crop.
A combination of bountiful sunshine and colder nights in recent months has led to a crop of strawberries around 10pc bigger than usual.
Bartosz Pinkosz of the Summer Berry Company, which supplies major retailers, said his farm in West Sussex was producing berries you 'cannot fit in your mouth'.
Mr Pinkosz told The Guardian: '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.'
Peter Judge, group managing director of S&A Produce, the UK's biggest independent strawberry grower, said recent weather had been 'phenomenal' for the berries.
A dull and cold March has allowed plants to develop strong root systems, while alternating periods of bright weather and cooler nights mean they have absorbed plenty of sunshine without being 'overstressed' by hotter weather.
He said: 'That gives us better quality fruit, because the cold weather gives flavour to the strawberries, and the burst of sun gives us much bigger fruit.'
Strawberries are also being bred to be bigger to match consumer tastes, Mr Judge said.
'New genetics are also paying a part. Of course, genetics have been developed and designed based on what customers want, which is bigger fruit.'
Fruits grown at the start of the harvest at S&A's farms, which supplies one in seven of the UK's strawberries, indicate that the incoming crop will yield berries weighing around 45g on average – almost twice the normal 25g.
'If you like a 400-gram punnet and you like big berries, you'll have a few less in there,' Mr Judge said.
As for how to approach them, Mr Judge said: 'Would these strawberries be too big to eat? I have a particularly big mouth, so it's probably okay for me. People might get to nibble them rather than bite them.
'But the reality is, I don't worry about size. I worry about flavour as a grower. And what we want is fantastic flavour, irrespective of size. The season has started well.'
The strong crop comes just in time for Wimbledon Championships, the tennis tournament known for its long association with strawberries and cream. Each year, more than 38.4 tonnes of strawberries – or nearly 2m individual berries – are eaten during the competition.