Quest to create perfect strawberry

They hope the project will help them create a variety which will meet the UK's demand for year-round, top quality fruit.

Last year Britons munched their way through £300m worth of berries and retailers expect consumption to keep on rising.

But growers are concerned that the varieties which grow the best in Britain do not produce enough fruit and that outside the summer season the crop is less than perfect.

They say that customers have complained that fruit picked outside the traditional harvesting months is often the wrong texture and that its flavour and colour leaves a lot to be desired.

Tastiest

The new deal involves supermarket suppliers AFI Redbridge, who say major new investment is being made available for the project.

The company says that if all goes well new varieties of strawberries could be on the shelves as early as next year.

In the search for the ideal strawberry the scientists and soft fruit growers and scientists are looking at the best overseas varieties.

They have announced that they have now acquired the genetic material of some of world's tastiest fruit.

It will be used in a conventional breeding programme with the aim of producing a new variety that will produce home-grown berries to compete with the best imports.