The price of strawberries and other British summer fruit will soar if Brexit negotiations fail to secure access to seasonal labourers from Europe needed to cultivate and harvest our crops, a new report has warned.

It will become harder for consumers to buy British, increased dependence on imports will impact our balance of payments and a hugely successful horticultural industry could be crushed.

That is the bleak outlook outlined in The Impact of Brexit on the UK Soft Fruit Industry report, commissioned by British Summer Fruits from Andersons the Farm Business Consultants.

Over the past 20 years, soft fruit production in the UK has grown by 131 per cent, largely as a result of an increase in home-grown strawberries, and as a result, the industry is now worth more than £1.2 billion.

What was once a fleeting treat, to be enjoyed for the few weeks around Wimbledon, has become a staple supermarket buy. Sales continue to increase year-on-year with a prediction of a further six per cent increase in production this year.

But Brexit is already exacerbating a worrying shortage of the seasonal labour which sustains this horticultural success story, and MPs have been warned that losing access to European workers will have a “disastrous and cataclysmic” impact on the industry.

Prices for strawberries and raspberries could rise by up to 50 per cent and with soft fruit now accounting for almost a quarter or one in every £5 spent on fruit, this will undermine the five-a-day healthy eating campaign and could impact the nation’s health.

Price is the single most important factor in food purchases, with 36 per cent of consumers ranking cost as their number one consideration and DEFRA figures show that between 2007 and 2012, when fruit prices rose by 34 per cent, low income households cut the amount of fruit they bought by 25 per cent.

Laurence Olins, Chairman of British Summer Fruits, the industry body which accounts for 97 per cent of all berries supplied to UK supermarkets, warns: “This is as extreme as it gets. If we do not have the pickers, we do not have a soft fruit industry.”