Social media helps farmer in race to sell fruit

A farmer has praised the power of social media for helping his business after the recent weather caused his fruit to ripen faster than he could sell it.

Joe Hamer, owner of Arscott Farm in Shrewsbury, posted an appeal on Facebook for people to attend its strawberry picking sessions as the heatwaves meant the fruit had grown and ripened "a lot quicker than normal".

The post led to the farm being "inundated" on Thursday morning with long queues for people to pay and the plants "stripped bare".

"We had more customers through the gate in the first hour [on Thursday] than we had all day yesterday, probably three times more," Hamer said.

He credited social media for keeping his farm going.

He said had not expected so many people to visit but had anticipated it would be busy as his appeal had been shared by more than 150 people.

"Growing soft fruit you need enough people to pick them because they're not worth a lot tomorrow, you've got such a short window with ripe fruit that you need to sell.

"You want feet on the ground to pick them, but you've got to manage that with expectation so people don't get disappointed," Hamer said.

He added: "We wouldn't have a business if it wasn't for social media, it can make or break you and it causes me a lot of stress but for every bad review there is a thousand good ones."

It is Hamer's fifth season growing strawberries and he described the industry as a "constant battle with the weather".

He said the "consistent heat" recently made it "quite difficult" to manage the growing conditions but it had still been a good year with plenty more fruit to come.

"The temperatures mean they're a lot sweeter too," the owner added.

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