The UK is to experience a surprise harvest of up to 200 tonnes of “big, juicy, luscious” strawberries following a spell of wet then warm weather.

Leading fruit supplier Mansfield chief executive Lee Port told the BBC that the country is set to receive an “abundance” of the summer fruit.

“The cold and wet spell earlier in the year, plus the recent mini heatwave, have resulted in pushing more of our predicted crop volume into late July and early August,” said Port.

“This will result in an abundance of strawberry – roughly an extra 40 to 50 tonnes a week until the end of August. The good news is that they are big, juicy and luscious.”

This year’s larger crops were first predicted in early June when fruit growers said the initial two-week delay in the UK’s strawberry harvest was set to prompt “bigger and riper” fruits.

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Fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries are understood to be the most popular fruit for UK shoppers, accounting for 28% of all fruit sold in the UK.

While consumers spent a record £847m on strawberries alone over the last 12 months, according to Kantar data.

However this year’s bumper strawberry yield also comes amid a precarious time for the wider British berry growers industry.

Just last week, trade body British Berry Growers (BBG) warned that growers were finding it increasingly challenging to survive following increased costs and low pay from supermarkets.

The BBG cautioned that if not addressed, this problem could lead to a “future massive reduction in the supply of fresh British berries”, and released a survey that suggested that 40% of British suppliers of strawberries and raspberries could go out of business by end of 2026.