It’s all happening in English top fruit at the moment.

Supermarkets love nothing more than getting one up on their rivals, of course, and Tesco will be privately delighted at having boosted its underwhelming share of domestic apple and pear sales with the addition of SGT’s volumes (p1).

Getting the first new season crops on shelf is both a point of pride and a PR boon for retailers, and having a strong supply base is critical to that.

Sainsbury’s response has been bullish, and it is quietly confident that it can not only maintain its dominance of English top-fruit sales but even increase it as the concept orchard project continues to pay dividends (p16).

The big winners in this situation are the UK growers. Supermarket wars can be both positive and negative, but when everyone’s fighting to have the most home-grown produce it can only be good news for domestic suppliers.

But the flip side of retail rivalry has been demonstrated again by the almost obligatory annual price war on bananas.

Whether we consciously admit it or not, we all love a good price deal, but I can’t remember the last time I switched to a different supermarket on the basis of getting cheaper bananas, even if they are a staple of my weekly shop.

Importers point to countless pieces of data showing the price inelasticity of bananas, and volume sales hardly went through the roof when Asda led a prolonged price war last year.

But no matter how hard they beat that drum, it continues to fall on deaf ears.

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