UK grocery retail Sainsbury’s anticipates that it will sell up to 10,000 British melons over the next six weeks after signing an exclusive deal with growers in the country.
The retailer said it would be offering the “biggest ever crop of home-grown melons” after hot, dry conditions in southern England created “perfect growing conditions” for Chanterais and Cantaloupe melons planted in the region of Kent.
The melonswent on sale in 67 Sainsbury's stores on 29 July, with a predicted harvest of 10,000 during the next six-weeks. The melons will be in a total of 100 stores in three weeks time.
In a statement, the retailer said that its allied growers had been aided by a “spectacular run of weather” earlier this year that has enabled them to achieve “record-breaking” yields from Chanterais and Cantaloupe plants in the 4.5ha of land devoted to melon farming.
According to Claude Guerin from vegetable seed company Nunhems, some of the vines are producing up to eight fruits each, two or three more than would be expected from crops in Spain and the south of France.
Finbar Cartlidge, fruit buyer at Sainsbury’s, said: “Buying British melons means fresher fruit for our shoppers. As the fruit is grown in the UK they arrive at our stores far quicker than our imported fruit from Spain so the fruit is fresher.”
Following this first successful large-scale British harvest, Sainsbury’s said it was now working with its farmers to trial “more exotic varieties” including Persian, Heirloom and Turkish melons.
Chanterais and Cantaloupe melons will be available priced at £2.29 (€2.63).
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