Isle of Wight Tomatoes
- Location: Isle of Wight
For over 15 years, Isle of Wight Tomatoes have been cultivating tomatoes in the rich, fertile soil of the Arreton Valley on the picturesque Isle of Wight. Combining age-old traditions with modern-day innovation, they are dedicated to growing tomatoes that taste as they should. Benefiting from the moist maritime air and more hours of sunshine than anywhere else in the UK, the Isle of Wight provides the ideal conditions for producing the tastiest tomatoes. Growing over 40 delicious varieties each year, ranging from red to green and everything in between, Isle of Wight Tomatoes carefully selects each type for its unique flavour and harvests them only when perfectly ripe, ensuring they are at their very best.
Isle of Wight Tomatoes is on a mission to make great flavour sustainable, creating a better food system where people and the planet come first—a concept they call “Forever Flavour.”
Their innovative approach prioritizes flavour, nutrition, and environmental health. Committed to becoming a zero-waste business, they focus on key areas such as recycling rainwater for crop irrigation and ensuring zero produce goes to landfills. By combining culinary craftsmanship with manufacturing innovation, they develop new products that use every tomato.
The farm employs both organic and conventional growing methods, using a coconut-based growing substrate in conventional farming, which is later composted to enrich their organic soil. This circular, sustainable system results in zero waste to landfill, eliminates the need for external compost, and continually enhances soil health.
Believing in the importance of food security through fast, local supply, Isle of Wight Tomatoes ensures their produce is enjoyed across the UK just hours after picking. They grow and trial more tomato varieties than anyone else, consistently creating produce that meets diverse culinary needs while delivering exceptional taste.
The farm is also dedicated to nurturing the next generation of farmers and food entrepreneurs through its partnership with the IOW Youth Trust. By offering education and work experience to young islanders, they aim to build a legacy of skilled growers, ambitious managers, and sustainability experts committed to the future of great-tasting tomatoes.
Their growing strategy focuses on fully developing fruit on the plant to achieve optimal ripeness and flavour, with the goal of delivering tomatoes to customers within 48 hours for maximum freshness. Their industry-leading closed-loop system includes composting all crop waste to enrich organic soils, harvesting rainwater for irrigation, and capturing and reusing runoff to ensure no water is wasted. They also employ integrated pest management with beneficial insects and generate onsite power, using by-products like heat and CO2 to maintain optimal conditions in the glasshouse and reduce carbon emissions.
Their 2023 impact statistics are impressive:
- Saved 340,000 kg of waste tomatoes, repurposed into tomato products.
- Turned 400,000 kg of coir slabs from conventional crops into compost.
- Improved soil health, increasing organic matter from 3% to 20%.
- Converted 41.5 tonnes of waste cardboard into compost.
- Harvested 100 million litres of rainwater annually from glasshouse roofs, reducing borehole water extraction by 80%.
Isle of Wight Tomatoes is also proudly B-Corp certified, reflecting its commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.
Produce:
- Mixed Heirloom
- Datterini
- Golden Datterini
- Cherry Vine
- Classic Vine
- Mixed Cherry Vine
- Green Tiger
- Ox Heart
- Heirloom
- San Marzano
Season: June – October
