\n
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBritish consumers can look forward to enjoying fresh, home-grown strawberries this Christmas, as a leading UK producer has successfully extended the fruit’s growing season to a full 12 months.<\/p>\n
The Summer Berry Company, a prominent fruit producer based near Chichester, is now cultivating British strawberries on a commercial scale throughout the year. This achievement is thanks to innovative LED technology, which allows them to recreate optimal spring conditions indoors during the colder months.<\/p>\n
The advanced system integrates renewable heat and power sources, sophisticated LED lighting, and energy storage solutions. This not only ensures a consistent supply of fresh berries but also significantly reduces the site\u2019s dependence on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
The firm installed a combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the farm which burns gas to generate electricity, which in turn powers 2,600 LED units which create artificial sunlight, giving plants the impression that it is April, rather than December.<\/p>\n
In the greenhouse, the LEDs hang above the rows of plants to aid photosynthesis during the darkest months, and fans in the LED units then blow heat produced by the lights down towards the crop, further reducing its energy use.<\/p>\n
The greenhouses are heated to between 18C and 22C throughout the winter.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Consumers are set to see fresh British-grown strawberries widely available this Christmas after a firm extended the season to 12 months with new technology (The Summer Berry Company\/PA Wire)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe development marks a major shift for the industry, which has traditionally relied on imports between November and March.<\/p>\n
The new technology means the company can now supply fresh British strawberries to retailers 365 days a year while cutting food miles from Middle East imports, which have historically fulfilled consumer demand during the winter.<\/p>\n
As a result, the industry is expecting to produce fruit over winter of higher quality than typical Egyptian or Spanish imports while potentially cutting around 400 tonnes brought in from overseas.<\/p>\n
The Summer Berry Company said it was on track to double volumes previously grown in winter to just over 400 tonnes in the current 2025 to 2026 season.<\/p>\n
The growing area has also doubled, expanding from 1.8 hectares to 3.6 hectares.<\/p>\n
The year-round operation is also supporting stable, local employment as the Chichester glasshouse has provided continuous work as opposed to purely seasonal for around 20 harvest workers, 15 husbandry workers, five workers in the packhouse and one student, and an agronomy and management team of about 10 people.<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>The Summer Berry Company, one of the UK’s leading fruit producers based near Chichester, is now growing\u00a0British strawberries at a commercial scale all year round with the help of LED technology through the colder months (The Summer Berry Company\/PA Wire)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nAmong the strawberry varieties grown at The Summer Berry Company are Malling Ace, Karima, Favori, Florice, Limore One and Fandango \u2013 the last of which was recently recognised as one of the tastiest strawberries in the world after receiving the top three-star Superior Taste Award from an international panel of chefs and sommeliers.<\/p>\n
Sainsbury\u2019s, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Morrisons will stock the berries.<\/p>\n
Bartosz Pinkosz, UK operations director at The Summer Berry Company, said: \u201cWe\u2019re all familiar with British strawberries at Wimbledon and Royal Ascot but not so used to them being served on Christmas Day after the turkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more British consumers can look forward to enjoying fresh, home-grown strawberries this Christmas, as a leading UK producer has successfully extended the fruit’s growing season to a full 12 months. The Summer Berry Company, a prominent fruit producer based near Chichester, is now cultivating British strawberries on a commercial scale throughout the year. This achievement is thanks to innovative LED technology, which allows them to recreate optimal spring conditions indoors during the colder months. The advanced system integrates renewable heat and power sources, sophisticated LED lighting, and energy storage solutions. This not only ensures a consistent supply of fresh berries but also significantly reduces the site\u2019s dependence on fossil fuels. The firm installed a combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the farm which burns gas to generate electricity, which in turn powers 2,600 LED units which create artificial sunlight, giving plants the impression that it is April, rather than December. In the greenhouse, the LE…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}