Waitrose & Partners will be the first UK supermarket to stock British asparagus on its shelves, eight weeks ahead of the usual season.
 
In the earliest ever crop for the supermarket, the traditional spring vegetable was successfully grown in The New Forest in Hampshire, as a result of an unusually mild winter and advanced farming techniques. 
 
For the first time, the limited edition early season British asparagus will be held together with a simple card wrap rather than plastic trays in a return to more traditional packaging. This, alongside a reduction in plastic packaging across all lines of asparagus, will save eight tonnes of plastic alone this year. This supports the continued effort by the retailer to reduce unnecessary plastic packaging where it can and help meet its target for all own brand packaging to be widely recycled, reusable or home compostable by 2023.  
 
The early crop will be available in selected Waitrose & Partners shops after successfully weathering Storm Ciara and Dennis in recent weeks. 
 
Lucy Broughton, Vegetable Buyer at Waitrose & Partners says, “With the help of the mild winter and new growing techniques we have seen our British asparagus spears shoot up ready to be enjoyed earlier than ever before. For us, the first British asparagus marks the start of spring and we are excited to be able to offer them to our customers first.”

Grown specially for Waitrose & Partners in the south coast of England, Gijnlim is a very early variety and with increased light levels and warmer temperatures naturally found in the south coast, starts earlier due to advanced growing techniques.
 
The asparagus are grown in French tunnels, with fleece tunnels over each bed to ensure the warmth is kept in. The substrate is also covered on the sides with black ground cover and a very thin black membrane which protects the spears from the cold whilst also capturing and retaining the heat from the winter sunshine. The substrate warms up quicker than soil hence the earlier production.

Waitrose & Partners First British Asparagus - £3.49 (200g), will be available in selected shops from 26th February.

For further information please contact:
Claire Earley
claire.earley@waitrose.co.uk
T: 01344825793 M: 07764676379