Kent greenhouse salads go on sale

The complex is expected to provide 2-3% of the UK's salads

The first vegetables to be grown at the UK's biggest greenhouse complex have gone on sale.

It has been predicted that the produce from Thanet Earth in Kent will boost the UK's salad industry by 15%.

The 225-acre (91-hectare) site near Birchington, which has enough glass to cover 80 football pitches, will also produce tomatoes and peppers.

The first cucumbers from the £80m centre, which opened in January, have been bought by Tesco.

Philippa Anderson, Tesco's south east regional marketing manager, said: "Until now no British grower has ever been able to grow round-the-year salad produce because of the enormous cost of heating glasshouses."

The greenhouses are heated by a gas-powered engine which generates electricity for the National Grid in a process called Combined Heat and Power (CHP).

The by-products - heat and carbon dioxide - are taken into the greenhouses to support the plants.

Thanet Earth estimates that it will produce about 100 million tomatoes every year, but even at full capacity the complex would only provide 3-4% of the UK's salads.