Asparagus growers in the south of the Netherlands say they have never seen their crop start to emerge from the soil so early.

‘The asparagus plant is usually asleep in winter, but it begins to grow as soon as the soil temperature reaches around 12 degrees,’ Huub Rooijakkers of the Dutch asparagus centre told local paper De Limburger.

‘But the ground temperature is already several degrees higher,’ he said.

This December is likely to be the warmest ever on record although weather forecasters now say it is likely to become colder by the end of the week.