Cauliflowers

Tesco is discounting cauliflowers after a winter glut.

The supermarket said a deluge ofBritish cauliflower is coming through this month after many growers' crops were delayed in time for Christmas. It is currently selling cauliflower for 49p instead of the regular 79p price to help shift the crop.

For the last six weeks British retailers have had to import cauliflowers from France and Spain as a result of poor UK growing conditions which affected the majority of the crop arriving in time for the festive season.

Tesco said it has stepped in to take an extra 500,000 cauliflowers which are finally being harvested now and are selling them at nearly half price to help growers manage the surplus.

Tesco produce buying manager Sam Miller said: “Cauliflower is one of the festive vegetables that is extremely popular with Christmas dinner and as a result we order much more for December. Back in November we heard that our suppliers were not going to be able to meet our orders as a result of the crop failure causing severe issues across the whole UK market.

“But the good news is that a bumper crop of British cauliflowers are now ready to go, and we were delighted to help make sure they don’t go to waste.”

One of the UK’s biggest brassica growers, Lincolnshire-based TH Clements, explained that the late Christmas orders, which began being harvested last week, would leave a large surplus of extra cauliflowers.

Commercial director Richard Mowbray said: 'We had some of the worst growing conditions for many years and it’s hit us really hard as we missed out on the big Christmas market. The cauliflower is a cool-weather vegetable and the season started badly in August and September as we didn’t get any cold nights, which are important for growth.

“The plants did not flower at the right time, which is the end of October and beginning of November. Instead they started flowering in December meaning they were a month behind schedule.

“Now we have a large surplus of cauliflowers and some of these would be going to waste had Tesco not stepped in to help.”