English supermarkets have given their support to the first British Strawberry Day on June 15 planned by the industry's promotional organisation National Summer Fruits. The programme will include instore tastings and more details will be announced in May. Marks and Spencer has already given support to the scheme and will distribute the NSF recipe leaflet in store. And there should be more fruit available according to NSF chairman William Pierce. He pointed out at the launch event that growers had invested an extra £6m in covered production. This will help ensure strawberry supplies will be uninterrupted during the build up to the campaign if there is wet weather. The English glasshouse crop is looking good. Picking of Lambada, the variety grown under glass, should be under way in mid April, probably three weeks ahead of last season. National Summer Fruits has also developed a logo that appears on a new web site listing current varieties across the whole spectrum of berry fruit. Other site pages highlighting the activities of the main producer/distributor groups involved in National Summer Fruits. But the site does not provide commercial information. {{FRESH PRODUCE }}

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