Britain's first crop of avocados is being grown in Sussex.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury's has asked gardeners at West Dean Gardens, near Chichester, to grow six avocado trees to see if the sub-tropical fruit can grow in this country.

Sainsbury's currently imports 25 million avocados a year, mainly from South Africa, Peru, Chile, Spain and Israel.

It has provided gardeners with six young avocado trees imported from Spain in May and they are growing well in metre-wide pots inside a large greenhouse.

Jim Buckland, gardens manager at West Dean, said the project fitted in with the traditional ethos of the walled kitchen garden, where the avocados are growing.

He said: "It's very much in the spirit of what we do here. Victorian kitchen gardens were intensely innovative in their heyday.

"The head gardener would be asked to grow something brought back from some farflung corner of the Empire by his boss."

Gardeners are growing Fuerte, Pinkerton and Hass varieties and hope the trees will bear fruit in late summer or autumn.

Mr Buckland said: "I would be extremely disappointed and surprised if they didn't produce some avocados eventually but whether it will be in the timescale Sainsbury's want, I don't know."

He said the trees had grown about two feet since May and are now about six feet tall.

A team of three staff care for all the plants in the walled garden, which includes avocados, peaches, nectarines, grapes and figs.

Mr Buckland said they were monitoring the temperature to make sure it did not drop below seven degrees centigrade, as well as humidity, daylight and nutrient levels.

If successful, the trial could prompt the start of a British avocado crop.

Sainsbury's avocado buyer Clancy McMahon said: "We're confident we can grow avocados with the right quality, consistency and flavour in the UK.

"However, we now want to analyse the cost of producing an avocado crop on a commercial scale.

"This will then be matched against the cost of importing the same volume of fruit and the freshness and flavour benefits to the consumer."

Friday, January 13, 2006