Having listened to the hopes and fears of the British tomato industry at its annual conference in Coventry last week, I was reminded of how much public perceptions of the fruit have changed for the better.

It was not that long ago that the national media constantly took the view that anything grown under glass in northern Europe was not simply a poor imitation of fruit from around the Mediterranean, but something far worse.

Examining what has brought about such an improvement in production, and kept the industry buoyant is more complex.

Environmentally speaking, little has changed. The glasshouses are still there, and, if the pundits at the conference are right, they will actually get bigger and bigger as one route to reducing the cost of production. There will also be more of them in the UK because of major developments taking place, surely another sign that the industry has confidence in its future.

What has altered, though, is the staggering range of “added-value” speciality varieties, tastes and shapes that are now available on the retail shelves, with the promise of more to come.

It could even be argued that the offer is now so wide, the names so numerous, and the pack descriptions so enticing that it may not be too long before customer confusion starts to creep in.

But so far, if proof was needed of this successful equation, the comparison with the significantly less-segmented German market illustrates the point nicely. The Dutch, who have supplied the UK for decades, were faced with a scenario similar to that of the UK. As a privileged UK member of the exclusive Dutch Golden Tomato Club, which updated European retailers annually, I remember that references to “factory farming” also appeared in Dutch headlines far too often for our hosts’ liking.

While these criticisms appear to have died down at least, the latest information provided at the conference by Dutch tomato giant The Greenery indicates that German retailers, unlike their UK counterparts, are still concentrating on stocking basic salad tomatoes and using discount prices to expand a market, which is comparatively reducing in value.

But there are, of course, other elements to the UK’s success besides segmentation. And one must surely be the enthusiasm and commitment with which the Tomato Growers’ Association has promoted itself and its products.

It strikes me as ironic that the conference took place in a week when the whole industry should have publicly responded to a front-page scare story over pesticide residues.

It is now a year on from the Fresh Produce Consortium’s announcement that it was reactivating a campaign based on voluntary contributions to support the industry and one must assume hope of its progress to burnish its image or defend it, as required.

At a time when it could have stood tall and shown its worth, the silence has been deafening.

• I would like to clarify that the reference in last week’s retail column to UK mushrooms was not Tesco's Value line, but the UK product available at the time, which carried a higher price ticket than the Value product from Poland.

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