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Wimbledon visitors consume 27,000 kilos of Wageningen variety strawberries

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27.06.2008

The Wimbledon tennis tournament has always been linked to strawberries and cream and this year spectators will again be enjoying strawberries of the Elsanta variety.

No less than 27,000 kilos of strawberries are consumed during the Wimbledon weeks, and more strawberries are sold outside the stadium during the tournament than before and after. For years the strawberry of choice at Wimbledon has been the Elsanta variety, which was developed by Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands.

Although the Dutch consider strawberries mainly as a summer fruit, the British associate them with Wimbledon. And vice versa: According to the Wimbledon website, the tradition of strawberries and cream has been around as long as the tournament itself. Fact is that strawberry sales rocket during the tournament, both inside the stadium and out.

The organisers of Wimbledon have been using strawberries of the Elsanta variety for years. This variety is from Dutch soil: It was developed by Wageningen UR. In fact, Elsanta has also been the top variety in north-western Europe for many years. When buying strawberries at your greengrocer’s or the supermarket, you can be 90 percent sure you are buying Elsantas. Look carefully and you will probably see the name on the packaging.

Elsantas have tasty and firm fruit, keep well and are easily transportable. This means that once again, Wimbledon can trust that spectators will be enjoying strawberries of a quality that matches the tennis.

Jac Niessen | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.wur.nl
www.wimbledonvisitor.com/tennis.html#strawberries

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