British strawberries will now be available at Christmas thanks to major advancements in growing technology.
The Summer Berry Company has become the first to grow British strawberries at a commercial scale all year round, providing strawberries into retailers 365 days a year.
The Chichester-based business has used its installation of a new tech-solution to power its glasshouses through the colder months.
The investment reduces the site’s reliance on fossil fuels, with the system using a mix of renewable heat and power, LED lighting and energy storage to recreate spring conditions indoors, allowing the plants to continue producing fruit even in mid-winter.
This marks a major shift for the industry, which had traditionally relied on imports between November and March, it said.
“We’re all familiar with British strawberries at Wimbledon and the Royal Ascot but not so used to them being served on Christmas Day after the turkey,” said Bartosz Pinkosz, UK operations director at The Summer Berry Company.
“Typically, the demand for winter strawberries has been fulfilled by flying them in from countries like Egypt and Jordan – but we believe our new technology provides a far superior-tasting fruit which is less energy-intensive to grow at our farm in West Sussex”.
The business added that winter production potentially cuts around 400 tonnes of fruit brought in from overseas with its volumes grown this season.
The growing area has also doubled, expanding from 1.8 hectares to 3.6 hectares compared with last year.
The solution has also allowed The Summer Berry Company to maintain year-round fruit donations to local charities, schools and hospitals, providing more than 22,000 punnets of strawberries this year alone through its partnerships with UK Harvest and The Big Difference.
The year-round operation also supports stable, local employment as the Chichester glasshouse provides continuous work as opposed to purely seasonal employment.
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