Scientists are hoping to develop a commercial version of the bean used in baked beans that can be grown in Britain.
Until now, it has been impossible for farmers to grow the haricot variety used for baked beans in the UK because they are incompatible with the climate.
But it says after a 12-year project, scientists have developed a seed they hope will allow the plants to thrive.
“It’s crazy shipping a bean halfway around the world,” said Prof Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University London’s Centre for Food Policy..
Thousands of tonnes of dried haricot beans are imported to the UK each week by the major brands, with long-distance legumes coming from the US, Canada, Ethiopia and China.
Andrew Ward, an arable farmer growing the beans in Lincolnshire, said: “It’s the first commercial scale planting of a variety of haricot beans that could end up in a can on everybody’s supper table.
“At the moment we don’t have any beans that are grown here that are suitable for baked beans, our climate isn’t right for producing this type of bean.”
Scientists at the University of Warwick developed seeds which can be sown in early May and harvested as a dry grain before mid-September, matching the UK’s warmer months.
Prof Eric Holub, from the university’s Life Sciences department, told the BBC: “The work that I have been involved with started in 2011, but actually it was inherited material that had been used here on the university farm in the 1970s and 80s.
“It was put into storage, and it was 2011 that I realised that there was some valuable material and I started reviving it.”
A smaller scale trial last year failed due to the summer heatwave, with hopes the current crop being grown in Leadenham, near Lincoln, will be ready to harvest in late August.
“We’ve seen empty supermarket shelves over the last few months”, added Andrew Ward. “That’s down to the problem that we don’t grow enough of our food, ourselves, here.”
