Sales of fresh mint shot up by 45 per cent in July compared to the same period last year, with 1.25 million pots, bunches and packs of fresh mint flying off the supermarket shelves. The Fresh Herb Company puts this down to the hot weather and the British love affair with Pimms and Lemonade, the classic cocktail made with fresh mint.
Overall unit sales of fresh herbs also increased by 6.9 per cent during the heat wave with the most popular herbs in order being coriander, basil, mint and then parsley.
Ann Tenison from The Fresh Herb Company said: “We always see an increase in sales of mint during the summer months but the sales levels for July have been the biggest we’ve seen yet. We believe overall herb sales have increased this last month due to a wider growing trend for cooking from scratch and because people have been entertaining and having BBQs during the hot weather.”
The Fresh Herb Company is the UK’s largest producer of fresh herbs for the UK retail market, supplying Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose with fresh herbs. It supplies over 16 million fresh living potted herbs each year and over 23 million packs of fresh cut and bunched herbs per year.
