I would agree with Sainsbury’s, that the combination of a mild winter, which raised soil temperatures and increased use of polythene, has given English asparagus what must be its earliest start on record.

The retailer has not been alone in spreading the good news. Press offices of several of its competitors have been quick to respond similarly, and news desks are the targets of a publicity frenzy that will doubtless be repeated in the summer and autumn with the race to be the first with UK berries or English apples.

It is of course hard to evaluate the initial impact of the early start to the season or the publicity fanfare. The Asparagus Growers’ Association meets next week to discuss Aspire - which may prove to be the biggest single breakthrough ever achieved and lead to extending availability past mid June - and it should be delighted in what is really pre-season publicity.

The multiples are doubtless hopeful that their own announcements about the product’s availability will have wider ramifications by increasing the footfall though their stores. But I wonder whether trumpeting the message at this stage could be considered counter-productive when shoppers could be faced with disappointment simply because, as yet, there is not enough to go round.

I am not saying that the structure of the season is incapable of altering. Even this year’s early start is down to another small example of climate change which some soothsayers would have us believe will eventually drastically alter the face of horticulture.

But English asparagus is on a roll. That there will be a longer harvesting period is not in doubt. It will represent a sizeable investment and therefore an increasing share of the crop is likely to be in the hands of larger growers. But new plantings, linked to new methods of production and varieties, are nevertheless continuing at a very substantial rate.

Meanwhile, the industry to its credit has been able to retain its very special British image - and apparently its price structure - despite the product being available year round, although there is still a long way to go before the real volume season extends beyond its traditional eight-week slot.

What retailers’ announcements may have done, if only for a brief time, is to put the individual fresh-produce managers in stores nationwide on the spot. It is they that will have to explain the real situation to enthusiastic shoppers who can only find spears from Peru, Thailand or elsewhere, although, admittedly they are likely to be of very high quality.

At least the early asparagus which is available does not suffer from the pitfalls which used to afflict the first winter citrus arrivals, when acidity was so high that it was claimed in old Covent Garden that the juice would take the enamel off the buyers’ teeth! The result was a disappointed customer who took a long time to get wooed back into the purchasing habit.

This is certainly not the case for the welcome first gras of the season.

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