WORK has begun on building the £80million Thanet Earth development which will be used to grow tomatoes, red peppers and cucumbers for Britain's supermarkets.

Thanet Earth is a 94-hectare site set between Birchington and Monkton and will feature seven massive glasshouses, each one the about the size of 10 football pitches. There will also be a fully automated packing station and a research and development unit.

When the site is fully operational, up to 550 new jobs are expected to have been created. The first 300 will be created during the course of next year as the first three glasshouses are completed.

Thanet Earth is a joint project between Fresca, a Kent salad marketing company based at Paddock Wood near Tonbridge, and three Dutch growing organisations.

Between them they will be supplying all of Britain’s supermarkets and expect to see the first Thanet Earth products on shelves in a year’s time.

Christopher Mack, executive chairman of Fresca, said Thanet Earth will eventually account for 10 per cent of Britain’s salad crops.

"It’s an exciting new project and the largest of its kind in the UK. There hasn’t been much investment in large glasshouses in this country for several years."

He said Thanet was chosen for the project for a number of key reasons including having good transport links to London and Europe.

Being a coastal area, Thanet has about 10 per cent more light than inland areas, which helps plants grow faster. He added Thanet Council has been enthusiastic and encouraging in bringing the investment to the area.

Fresca is already talking to local colleges to enable agriculture students to gain experience of working on the site.

Thanet Earth is such a large site that mini power stations used to generate its electricty will create enough power for 50,000 houses. Fresca expects surplus electricity to be fed into the National Grid.

The site will be growing peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers throughout the year and it will be manned around the clock. At night, curtains will be drawn inside the glasshouses to minimise light pollution.

Council leader Cllr Sandy Ezekiel said he was delighted to see work begin on Thanet Earth. Discussion had started three years ago and the authority has been involved for the past two.

He said: "I can see Thanet Earth becoming a tourist attraction in its own right. It’s great news for the area and a rare opportunity to help solve local unemployment."

Archaelogists from Canterbury Archaelogy Trust have been working on parts of the site over the past few days and have already unearthed Roman remains and expect to find Iron Age materials dating back 3,000 years.