There are lots of good things going for fresh fruit apart from the obvious health benefits. There is enormous choice, with the majority of categories available year round and offering a range of tastes to suite all palates. It is convenient, and in most cases naturally packaged under a skin that is often edible or can easily be removed. It can be a refreshing snack or part of creativity in the kitchen, turned into drinks and sauces and much more.

But while British consumption still lags behind the continent, the industry must innovate if it is going to improve sales.

The sector has come a long way from the time when, for example, immature Cox destroyed customer expectations, or the first arrivals of winter grapefruit from the Mediterranean in autumn were so acidic that wholesalers used to joke that it would take the enamel off your teeth. The result, in most cases, was that after an initial surge in demand as the season got underway, sales dipped until confidence was restored as maturity increased.

Today, a wide range of stonefruit and pears in particular identified as ready to eat, as distinct from ripen at home, have created their own niche and are usually presented in a special display area, although sadly in my own experience this still fails to live up to the promise. Peaches and nectarines can still be almost rock hard, and finding mangoes or avocados is not always easy.

Perhaps this is one of the things that has benefitted the sales of fresh-cut produce, as an alternative, where the range now covers everything that can make the biggest fruit salad in the world.

The latest innovation to catch my eye this week is ripened, peeled and vacuum-sealed Peruvian Hass in a transparent pack created at source, as part of a £5 cocktail kit for Morrisons, which will be on the shelves in time for Christmas. It’s a novel idea but whether this will turn wider avocado retailing on its head remains to be seen. There have been similar exploits that while equally forward thinking, failed to withstand the test of time.

One example was when the Albert Fisher Group in its heyday on the stock exchange imported peeled oranges from the US, which caused considerable interest as they were perfect in every detail, with the skin, rag and pips having, I understand, been dissolved through a secret but harmless enzyme process.

After a brief period they disappeared, but turned up again over a decade later, including grapefruit, on a stand at French show SIAL marketed by a South African company. They still failed to make it in any volume to our side of the Channel.

The good news, of course, is that everyone keeps trying something new in the name of convenience and taking the offer forward.-

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