Chahi Ariel, an Israeli farmer, logged a Guinness World Record with the heaviest strawberry ever recorded, weighing in at 289 grams.
According to the Guinness World Records, the fruit was 18 cm long, 4 cm thick and 34 cm in circumference.
The record breaking strawberry is of the Ilan variety and was grown by Ariel’s family business “Strawberries in the Field” (תות בשדה משק אריאל), located in Kadima-Zoran, Israel.
The Ilan variety of strawberry was originally bred by Dr. Nir Dai, a researcher from the Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization (ARO), at the ARO Volcani Center in Bet-Dagan, near Tel-Aviv.
The Ilan variety of strawberry is known for producing large fruits.
“During this strawberry season in late January and early February it was particularly cold,” explained Dr. Nir Dai, who was one of the witnesses during the strawberry’s weigh-in.
“The strawberry developed slowly for more than 45 days from flowering which caused it’s large size at full ripening stage.”
This meant that multiple berries grew and fused together to form one large strawberry. A berry big fruit.
The cold weather conditions described by Dr. Nir Dai led to a bumper crop of strawberries for Ariel’s fruit farm, producing not just one, but four sizable strawbs.
The previous record for world’s heaviest strawberry was 250 g (8.82 oz). The berry was grown by Koji Nakao (Japan) and was weighed in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan, on Jan. 18, 2015. The strawberry was a Japanese variety called Amaou.
This year has already seen other world records set in relation to fruit. In January Rouses Markets and Sunkist Growers earned the official Guinness World Record title for the largest display of citrus fruits.
