There was a period, not long after Britain joined the then Common Market, when our fruit-farming industry went into a spiralling decline. The European single market brought in cheaper fruit and more varieties grown by the French and Dutch. And the supermarkets became ever more demanding in their quest for fruity perfection.

British soft-fruit growers struggled. Yet somehow they rallied, developing growing methods that could compete with their foreign counterparts and providing new varieties with juice, scent and flavour. It has taken 25 years but now the soft-fruit farms of Herefordshire, Kent and south-eastern Scotland have succeeded in producing fruit in a long season on a large scale.