Wimbledon Waste & Surplus Strawberries
Did you know that last year we rescued 37 tonnes of strawberries? That’s more than enough to cover Wimbledon’s entire two-week strawberries-and-cream supply, which usually clocks in at 34 tonnes!
British strawberries really are quite something, aren’t they? Buy the right ones and they are richly red, sweet and fragrant. One bite and the juice runs down your chin as you reach for another one straight from the punnet.
There is something nice about knowing the strawbs have come from British soil. It supports British growers, something you know we are very passionate about, and means that the fruit is as fresh as it can be, having travelled only a short distance to your kitchen. Or picnic blanket, office lunch, on-the-go snack — delete as applicable.
In fact, we’ve found that Oddboxers really love British fruit and veg. When we launched strawberries as an add-on in May, over 13% of you added them to your weekly selection. That’s one of our highest performing add-ons ever, same with British cherries, which launched at the end of June. You guys couldn’t get enough, selling us out within the first few days and sending us racing to find other suppliers from which we could rescue surplus cherries.
All this points to us having a real appetite (pardon the pun) for these sweet British berries. Despite this, tonnes of perfectly delicious British strawberries will be wasted this summer.
So why is this happening? Unfortunately, strawberries are delicate little fruits with a very short shelf life. They are very affected by weather and temperature (same). A sudden heatwave can cause a crop flush — this means that the crop ripens quickly and therefore needs to be harvested fast. This creates sudden gluts that supermarkets won't take.
Growers can also have a hard time processing this amount of strawberries. When harvested in 30-degree temperatures, the strawberries themselves are equally as hot. Which is far too hot for them to thrive when you would usually store them in the fridge. Growers use cooling systems to drop the temps, but it’s hard to get through all the berries when it’s so hot, both inside and out. When they ripen fast, they tend to stay small too. This doesn’t fit the strict size requirements, which again, supermarkets won’t take.
The good news is that we can jump in and save these surplus berries. Already in 2026, we’ve rescued 16,287kg and are on track to rescue another 20,500kg if our maths is right. That’s about four times as heavy as a Tyrannosaurus rex if you’re familiar with dino sizes. If you’re not, it’s just really, really big.
If you’re reading this, Wimbledon, give us a call next year. We've got plenty more where these tasty strawberries came from.
For more hacks and inventive ways to make the most of strawberries, you can read all our tips and tricks on our blog.
