Plotting the changing shape of the fruit and vegetable industry on a weekly basis includes more than the major news breaks, such as the varying trading successes of our leading multiples, the investment by growers and importers to keep up, or the arrival of new varieties.

It is also about keeping an eye on the titbits that turn up all over the place, and keeping a sharp eye on the reality of what is happening in the high street, or outside of it.

For instance, the time when my own village had three independent fruiterers is long gone. But there is an enterprising wholesaler who now sells direct having set up a weekly pitch on the premises of a garden centre, drawing customers from a wide area.

There is also a farmers’ market that tours the area, an organic box delivery service, garage forecourts and farm shops. So no one is being starved of their 5 A DAY, even if there were not a supermarket around - and there are, in fact, three.

As a result I feel that the dream envisaged by Mary Portas - that high streets are still capable of being invigorated - is as near as the White City is to Paradise.

For this ideal to succeed, there have to be grocers, fishmongers, greengrocers, newsagents, butchers, bakers and perhaps even candlestick makers offering the full range of services, and that’s apart from the consideration of long opening hours.

There are also other factors that come into the equation. Wholesale markets have been in decline, so the supply chain’s vital links are numerically far weaker in many areas than a decade ago.

For a retailer, it must now be a costly, as well as time-consuming business to drive to a market several days a week. Fewer fruiterers, which were often family run, has meant that retail buying skills may also be in shorter supply.

At present, with small businesses of every type constantly making the point that it is almost impossible to borrow enough investment capital to buy a cheese sandwich, the timing for new ventures could not be less fortuitous.

Hope, of course, springs eternal, as is the poignant case following a recent plea from Chiswick independent retailers in West London for public support. The damage was being done in this case by the impact of soaring rents and local parking restrictions.

In the best British tradition they have banded together and are setting up a market day to draw attention to their plight, and I am sure everyone will have a degree of sympathy and wish them well.

The reality, however, is that heavy advertising and the constant stream of bargain prices from the multiples has already become the large retailers’ own straitjacket. -