Sainsbury’s has announced two long-term agreements with UK producers to help increase the volume of its British-grown tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers available to its customers.

The supermarket retailer made ten-year partnerships with suppliers Evesham Vale Growers and Thanet Earth designed to support the availability of British-grown salad vegetables.

As part of the deal, Sainsbury’s will now sell British-grown cucumbers through the winter months for the first time, which is a major move that aims to increase local whole cucumbers on shelves up to 60 per cent this winter.

Thanet Earth is set to invest in the glasshouse capacity needed to grow cucumbers commercially over the British winter.

Additionally, this change will help increase the resilience of the category as weather changes such as increased rainfall continue to impact warmer regions.

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The move is designed to offer British growers the certainty which is needed to invest in long-term development, as the sector is facing rising costs and climate volatility.

This comes after Sainsbury’s has seen a strong performance within its tomato offer, with the Taste the Difference line generating over £120m in sales and accounting for over 65 per cent of total sales.

Hannah O’Reilly, category director of produce at Sainsbury’s said: “With our changing weather, it’s more important than ever to find new, innovative solutions to make sure our customers can continue to enjoy the quality produce they want all year-round.

“Investing in more British production and supporting our suppliers to innovate is helping us build a stronger, more resilient supply chain in a category that has been impacted by weather-based shocks in recent years.”

This is part of Sainsbury’s wider commitment to investing over £5bn in thousands of British and Irish farms to support local suppliers.