Maybe it is because the weather is getting colder, but potatoes seem to be gaining more shelf space.

There are certainly plenty of tubers about, although there is some concern that quality may not hold up in the spring, at least according to reports from the British Potato Council [see p10].

Nevertheless, packaging at The co-operative is intent on spreading several messages: a degradable 750g pack of Maris Peer retailing at £1.35 declared “Eat More.”

And there is something new at Tesco, where a semi-prepared product sits on the shelf alongside fresh, although with more convenience packs arriving these days, the lines are even more blurred. I saw Mayan Gold featured with a portion of goose fat. The potato itself is marketed as very close to the original variety first brought to Europe in Elizabethan times. Meanwhile, the 400g combined Tesco pack is priced at £2.29.

In the same store, the English Heritage apple selection, which this week included Golden Russet, is going down well. The pack - first displayed at the National Fruit Show last month - features a picture of Jane Garrett, manager of the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, which is one of the sources for the Tesco fruit. However in terms of retail exposure, pride of place goes to grower Richard Scripps who features on one of the largest banners I have seen in store, and is currently dominating Tesco’s apple section.

Tastes of course come and go, and although I read recently that tiger-striped tomatoes which first made an appearance last year, have not proved as popular as had been hoped, they are still arriving in Sainsbury’s stores in an attractive organic pack from the Netherlands.

The ripe-and-ready-to-eat selection from FE Koning also contains mini golden plum types as well as a mix of the more usual red varieties.

Also prominent from across the North Sea were chocolate-brown peppers at 79p each, which despite appearing in the Dutch auctions many years ago are still something of a novelty. Perhaps alongside black carrots, their popularity is at last beginning to rise.

Putting a new slant on produce as a way of adding value seems to know no bounds. Using a protective rigid bubble pack has been tried for apples, particularly for single fruits sold on garage forecourts. But it has now been elevated to brassicas. Sainsbury’s is using it to highlight Extra Trimmed 250g cauliflower grown in Lincolnshire by George Read.

And now I have a question. Are Hass avocados getting smaller? I don’t mean the size of the crops reaching the UK during the summer or winter, and neither am I criticising the grading. But there was a time when the only fruit on offer was fruit that was generally described as medium or large. But over the last few months there have been ever larger volumes of what one could almost call mini-fruit arriving, and in so doing creating a new sales dimension.

Answers in a brown envelope please via the editor!

Topics