I often feel that the praise due to the fresh produce industry is not sung loudly enough. After all, it represents a sophisticated producer-distributor-retail chain that deals with highly perishable seasonal commodities.

Ask someone from any sector and they will rightly point out that it taxes both the ingenuity and the pocket to ensure there is continuity on the shelf for 12 months of the year. Constant marketing meetings and reassessment of annual programmes because of changes in the weather are only the visible outward signs. Perhaps the reason the trade is not as highly regarded as it is, say, in the US is because at almost every turn in the UK, there seem to be dichotomies. In my experience, these have led to newcomers to the trade describing its workings as “all smoke and mirrors” - until they learn better.

Yet there are peculiarities, of which consumers and indeed the media appear unaware. For example, the public really seems to have taken Fairtrade produce on board to the point that distant developing countries are being given a chance to open up the potential of new industries. Yet at the same time there is criticism of food miles - a spectre that continues to loom large.

I remember at the time of the dreadful Ethiopian famine, there was criticism that green beans were being exported to the UK. Yet there was little knowledge that this crop and other vegetables were making a real financial contribution to the beleaguered country’s economy.

Then there is the question of seasonality. Again, if one is to believe the media, this seems to be a concept that only exists in the UK. The first new potatoes, tomatoes and berry fruit will doubtless be praised in the weeks ahead as they reach the retail shelves. Nevertheless, there is still a great deal of work to be done before consumers realise that the same rules apply elsewhere as the southern hemisphere seasons get underway. Greater knowledge should produce greater enjoyment.

But only this week, a champion of the cult of seasonality, notorious gardener and bane of berry-fruit growers everywhere, Monty Don, argued in the press that strawberries have become tasteless “factory fruit”.

Public relations aside, there is no doubt that breeders are producing more - and often better - varieties of just about everything than ever before.

When I came into the industry, if there even was such a thing as a new-tasting apple it would take decades to get to market. Now these seem to be tried, tested and even disappear within a decade if they do not fulfil the exacting requirements, first of taste and secondly, of yield.

Most research indicates that consumers are prepared to pay more, be it for UK-grown produce or simply the right quality product from anywhere else, whatever that may mean.

So why is it that fruit and vegetables, compared with other foodstuffs, are so cheap?

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