While the volume of English cherries harvested this year must be something of a record on the back of an extended season, domestic supply cannot go on for ever. As such, a number of retailers have turned to Canada to keep the sales momentum going.

Sainsbury’s has come up with a lesser known variety called Staccato, available both on offer in a 200g punnet at two for £3, and a bigger 475g brother for £4.99, both under its own label.

Tesco was selling Sweetheart in a 450g exclusive pack at £4.99, which was probably originally bound for the Canadian market. It is trademarked as Jealous Fruit.

If the appeal of cherries is heightened when they are big and bold, melons seem to be moving in the other direction.

Marks & Spencer’s mini watermelons from Italy at £1.99, introduced this year, have been attracting interest, while I also came across a similar sized Spanish gold melon in Tesco at £1.50 and branded Sugar Baby - a similar label to that discovered on Waitrose’s Piel de Sapo last week.

But for real variety the time has arrived for plums. Not just our own Opal, Reeves and soon, Victoria, but a wide range of shapes and colours being grown across the Mediterranean.

In one sense some varieties are a bit of a mystery, although arrivals from Portugal - a lesser known source in Sainsbury’s - include the Golden Globe variety at two for £3.

Israeli produce appears to be awash with new names, with Mark plums at £1.99 being added to the Tesco range.

M&S however has several still coming off the drawing board and only identified by numbers such as SO39, YO51 and YO28.

These include yellow varieties with the promise that the trees produce fruit for maximum maturity and are among the “The World’s Best“, as well as speciality varieties at £2.49 for six which have different skin colours such as one which is distinctly pink.

Such descriptions, of course, are part of the marketing jargon used by most retailers. I still make a plea from time to time about greater clarification.

In the vegetable sector, it is describing its large prepared UK grown young spinach pack at £1.79 as “super”.

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