Autumn Fruit Coming to Shelves as Droughts Bring Early Harvest

Harvests are coming two weeks early owing to the drought, Waitrose has said, as it prepares to stock autumnal fruit in summer.

- Helena Horton

The farmers that supply the supermarket are already harvesting wheat, oilseed rape, oats and malting barley, a fortnight before they generally would, according to the supermarket. A lack of rainfall coupled with hot weather has caused the crops to race through their growing stages and come to maturity early.

Environment Agency data released yesterday revealed that 80% of England's river flows are below normal, and they continue to drop.

Rainfall has been scarce, with England as a whole receiving 1mm of rain so far in August, and southeast England is particularly dry; it has received just 2mm of rainfall, which is 3% of the long-term average (LTA) for the month as a whole. England has received just 14% (10mm) of August's LTA after 19 days.

Thomas Adami, the farming operations manager at Leckford Farm, a supplier, said: "The drought conditions meant that the plants were stressed, and in reaction to this they raced through their growth stages to produce their seed before they senesce, hence the earlier harvest."