Surveying the shelves, there is no doubt that some products have greater visual advantages when on display than others.
Root crops, in particular, have always been the produce aisle’s poor relation, although full marks to retailers and potato packers for coming up with a combination of bag designs and detailed messages, plus cooking instructions, which together have lifted marketing onto a higher plane.
Carrots are no longer dominated by bulk packs. Value has been added with named varieties such as Chantenay, feathery green-topped pullings, and mini veg displayed with flair. Parsnips are now trimmed better than ever, and beetroot has responded by moving more and more into the prepared range, with exotic marinades. And there are now far more young turnips around.
Outside the UK, even sweet potatoes from Honduras are getting in on the action at Tesco, priced at £1.69/kg. They are individually labelled and highlighted with an eye-catching name, Spudzilla - perhaps the brainchild of the marketing department.
But it seems the humble swede remains the odd one out, although in the same store these are now shrink-wrapped and on offer, not just by weight, but also trimmed into portions of 300g and 500g. What caught my eye was that the label named Devon as the source, so the county is now getting its due recognition. When I worked in Covent Garden market, produce from this region, with its red soils, always fetched a premium.
Certainly, the concept of proclaiming value is a phrase much used in the retail armoury, although Marks & Spencer has now defined its polybags of eight UK Gala, at £1.59, with the term “value without compromise”. I am still trying to get my head around what this actually means.
More easily understood - assuming the customer can read print so small and knows about the benefits of lycopene in a healthy diet - are Spanish vine tomatoes under Tesco’s Healthy Living brand, priced at £1.99 for a minimum of four fruits. I remember at a conference held in the mists of time that several growers believed this type of information would one day be used to increase awareness of healthy eating. Now, the momentum seems to be underway.
Meanwhile, interest in fresh-cut products is growing, and the category is now well past the time when fruit used to slosh about in leaking packs. I have personally always questioned its value for money compared with the DIY equivalent, but the new lines keep on coming.
One of the latest is from Sainsbury’s, which is notable for its choice of product. I found two lines in tubs, both at £2.99. More unusual was nectarine (11 per cent), plum (11 per cent) and physalis (nine per cent). For readers who think that I have mistakenly added up, the pack also contains melons (35 per cent) and pineapple (34 per cent).
The same pattern emerged with the plum, pear and strawberry pack, at 22 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. The other ingredients were grapes (26 per cent) and apples (22 per cent).
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