Does anyone else sense a change in the atmosphere? It may not have pervaded all categories yet, but the positive consumer reaction to tomatoes this week, and no doubt soft fruit next, is the perfect launchpad for the industry into what will hopefully be a record-breaking summer.
I am obliged I suppose to add the dreaded “weather permitting” into that dreamy equation, but what we are witnessing could just be the beginning of the fresh produce consumption boom we all await.
What is most encouraging is that “commodity weeks” as David Shapley coins them on page 6, are now being seen as the precursor to a concerted season-long promotional push, rather than seven days of instant-hit profiteering.
Although the retailers do, undoubtedly, clammer to be associated with homegrown fruit for customer image purposes, they also recognise the sheer weight and value of British produce that can be shifted and the effect this has on volume sales and market share. Suppliers can have little argument, as they often stand to gain in almost equal measure.
The surge in tomato sales was not entirely due to British Tomato Week, just as any uplift in soft fruit demand in the next week cannot be attributed purely to a sex-crazed public clearing the shelves for a Bank Holiday sleep-in.
But who is bold enough to deny that there is more than coincidence involved in such fantastic across-the-board figures? Not me, I’m off to eat a couple of punnets of strawberries.
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