Bananas only seem to hit the headlines when there is a price war underway. Tesco, however, has taken a different tack as far as customers are concerned when it comes to making a choice over maturity.
Historically the industry has adopted a system where there are seven degrees of ripeness, but the habit of buying green fruit still tends to be stuck on the other side of the Atlantic. But things may change as its displays now carry a shelf barker proclaiming “Like your bananas green... We pick to order”.
Budgens has loose fruit for sale at 98p/kg from the Ivory Coast. These carry a sticker which proclaims that last year a consumer panel found it the best tasting.
Meanwhile, when it comes to peppers, in the same store a giant red variety grown in Spain called the Lamuyo is on sale singly at £1, together with a recipe on the pack.
For something different, in the citrus range Sainsbury’s is offering lesser-known limequats at £1.50/150g. A cross between the sour Mexican lime and a kumquat, it was bred originally in Florida at the turn of the last century.
One of the skills of fruit retailing is to fix an idea in the consumers’ mind that seems both sensible and appropriate. Marks & Spencer has a new fresh-cut range arriving described as a ‘fridge pack’. Mango Madness is £4/450g.
At a time when demand for winter vegetables and roots must have been high, yet another variation in the brassica selection has been sighted in Morrisons.
Kale has grown in popularity over recent years, and now there is an addition with a Lancashire-grown Sweet Russian variety sold in individual bunches at £1 each. —
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