Guardian News and Media/London

English cherry farmers celebrating the biggest harvest in more than a decade can look forward to as much as a 30% annual increase in the crop over the next five years as more orchards are planted.

Up to 3,500 tonnes of English cherries are expected to be delivered to stores this year, more than three times as much as last year and well ahead of the 400 tonnes gleaned in 2000.

The crop is expected to increase by more than 1,000 tonnes again next year and keep rising in the following years, helping to replace imported fruit.

The rapid expansion comes after farmers discovered growing dwarf trees in polytunnels could increase crops more than fivefold from the same area of land.

The price of English cherries is predicted to drop by as much as a fifth compared with 2011 figures in the next three years.

“It’s a traditional summer fruit,” said Craig Rook, farms manager at FW Mansfield Son in Kent, one of the largest cherry growers in the UK. “We’re trying to displace importers with a system of production that can give the supermarkets continuity and consistency of supply.”

Rook, who sells to the likes of Waitrose and Marks Spencer, said FW Mansfield Son was planting 5,000 new trees a year adding more than 20 hectares of new orchards over the last six years. He added that UK growers had learned from the success of polytunnels for strawberries helping put more British fruit on the table for a greater part of the summer.

Almost all soft fruit is now grown under plastic in the UK, which helped to double yields and extend the season to as long as eight months.