With consumers becoming more price-conscious every week - thanks in no small part to the media - it is beginning to look as if soft fruit and stonefruit are having to fight their corner on the shelves more than usual.
If proof were needed, I actually overheard two shoppers discussing whether strawberries were a better buy than nectarines - although in the end cherries won as a “first of the season” treat.
Certainly there is a profusion of cherries right now, with US product colliding head-on with fruit from Turkey - although Sainsbury’s more unusually had Greek Bakirtzie on the shelf, in a 600g single-layer pack for £3.49.
However, to its credit, the UK industry has been putting up a brave show after a period when changeable weather and consumer demand during June often seemed out of step. Marks & Spencer has a 400g punnet on a two-for-£4 offer, which also includes Scottish fruit, strongly identified by the national blue and white saltire. It is part of a selected summer fruit offer on certain lines.
More obvious identity may in fact also be playing a part across the whole fruit and veg range in order to get customers buying. In the same M&S store, Hampshire watercress was on sale, with 100g priced at £1.49, while in the adjacent Tesco, the same county was being highlighted for its blackcurrants, at £1.99 for 250g, and strawberries, £1.99 for 454g, were labelled as “grown near Romsey”.
Competitions were dominating the citrus sector in the same Tesco store. Disney goodies have been associated with the category for some time, and children’s wall stickers were linked to 600g nets of South African clementines, at two for £2.50.
There has been a daily chance to win an iPod nano on Jaffa-branded Navels from the same source for more than three months from May to July (five fruits for £1.48), and a coupon collection tailboard game set linked to 2kg packs of Egyptian juicing oranges at £1.98.
It was also a question of spot the odd one out. While fresh-cut, microwaveable vegetables verge nearer and nearer to being classified as delicatessen products, I came across rice noodles at a £1 a pack or three for two, which seems to be stretching it a bit.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s has come up with a new fruit salad pot containing pineapple, melon, grape, strawberry and pomegranate. The clever bit, I think, is that it is called Rainbow Fruit Salad, which describes it admirably.
And talking of descriptive texts, these are moving more and more into the world of vegetables. Aubergines come in all shapes and sizes, but Morrisons has opted for calling a freckled variety grown in the Netherlands the Graffiti type, at 99p. And Tesco, while expanding its exotic range, has come up with Cherry Bomb Chillies, for 50p a pack.
Nevertheless, as far as informing the public is concerned, Waitrose must take top prize with its speciality orange flesh melons sourced from Italy. What can only be described as an information belt around the fruit not only guarantees quality, but offers traceability through the website, with each fruit’s history documented from the seed to the plate. Anyone who wants to try it, visit www.lorenzininaturamica.com
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