Start of Wimbledon hands boost to fruit sales, says Herefordshire farmer
The tournament got underway on Monday (29 June), with it having a long running association with strawberries in particular
A Herefordshire farmer has said demand for fruit "definitely picks up" around the time Wimbledon takes place.
This year's tennis tournament saw the first round start on Monday (29 June), running now up until the 12 July.
Strawberries and cream in particular have a long-standing history with the competition, with them having links back to when it first began in 1877.
Oakchurch Farm in Staunton-on-Wye has been growing fruit since the 1970s, Jeremy Price, who now runs it with his wife after his mum and dad originally it, said Wimbledon does have a real impact on trade.
"The 2 things (strawberries and Wimbledon) go hand in hand and it certainly helps the fruit sales at this time of year," he said.
"Going back to May when we start picking strawberries, we're sometimes conflicting with imported fruit at that time of the year.
"Then when you go through June, it's generally British fruit and then the demand definitely picks up when you get to Wimbledon, it tends to just drop off a little bit in August because a lot of people go on holiday and it springs back a little bit in September."
In total at the farm, Mr Price said this year they've got around 16 acres of strawberries, about 25 acres of raspberries and just under 30 acres of cherries in their fields.
He said things have been "extremely busy" due to the recent heatwave, in making sure all their fruit was ok and taken and stored when it needed to be.
"We start picking at 5am so that we can have it picked in the coolest part of the day," he said.
"Last week when we were picking, even when you're starting at the coolest part of the day, it was still over 20 degrees.
"It wasn't great for the fruit, but it was a nice week selling last week, with lots of fruit sold I think."