Pumpkins will be larger this year in stores across the UK, resulting from Britain’s unpredictable weather this summer.
While many Brits may have been cursing the rainier-than-usual mid-summer months of July and August, the inclement weather was good news for the UK’s pumpkin growers.
Tesco has braced itself for strong demand as pumpkins have gone on sale.
Tesco pumpkin buyer Lucy Moss said that the good news for Halloween fans coming from Tesco’s leading pumpkin growers is that the fruit will be larger than usual in all size variations this year as a result of perfect growing conditions across the summer months.
“This year, we have six different sizes, and based on last year’s demand, carving variety is still the most popular. Each of the six different size categories will be larger than usual this year so that fans will get value for money,” said Moss.
Moss continued that the good news, from a food waste point of view, was that there had been an increase in customers searching for recipes for their delicious, versatile pumpkin flesh on the Tesco Real Food website.
Oakley Farms, based near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, is one of Europe’s biggest suppliers of pumpkins, growing around five million each year.
The farm works hand in hand with Tesco to ensure that there is as little pumpkin waste as possible.
Steve Whitworth, Commercial Manager at Oakley Farms, said the farm had a pretty good growing season for pumpkins this summer with a sweltering June, which helped the plants along.
“The rainy July and August may not have been great for sun lovers or BBQ fans, but from a growing point of view for pumpkins, it was perfect,” said Whitworth.
“The weather gave us the right amount of rain with sunny intervals, especially compared with the challenging conditions we encountered during last year’s heatwave, officially the hottest UK year on record.”
