One of the leading strawberry farms in Kent has started distributing its harvest to stores across the country.

Hugh Lowe Farms, based in Mereworth, near Maidstone, produces over 5,000 tonnes of fresh berries between April and November.

And although it was delivered a blow by the cancellation of the tennis championships at Wimbledon this summer - an event it normally provides more than 30 tonne of the fruit for - it is still hoping a variety developed in the county will prove a hit.

Managing director Marion Regan said: “It’s always exciting when the first crop hits the shelves, it feels like summer really is just around the corner.

“This first crop is an early variety called Malling Centenary. It was originally raised as a seedling locally by strawberry breeders at the East Malling Research station.

“The quintessential summer fruit, English strawberries are so full of flavour and natural sweetness and these are no exception this year.”

But it does mean the extra crops laid on for Wimbledon will now be on the shelves of supermarkets and suppliers nationwide.

She had previously said: "We’re pretty committed to that crop now. It’s planted and it’s there. But there’s some tweaks that we can make to timing, because the challenge is always to get that particular crop that we’ve targeted to peak during those two weeks."

Wimbledon was one of the many sporting events to fall victim to the pandemic.

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