The retail sector has never been short of ideas on how to attract customers and encourage them to buy. Not surprisingly, these have filtered into the fresh produce industry.

Apart from messages on packs extolling the pleasures of eating fruit and vegetables, new tastes and varieties are helping to excite consumer curiosity.

Tesco has taken this a step further on nectarines, plums and citrus, with a shelf barker that proclaims a “guaranteed improvement” through its selection, as well as trumpeting its Green Healthier Options logo.

South African loose Navel oranges at 45p each caught my eye. These are guaranteed seedless - an attribute that I thought was already well known.

Less sophisticated at my local branch, there was a banner outside simply proclaiming romaine and iceberg lettuce half price.

Descriptions also play a part, but as far as those unusually shaped donut peaches are concerned, Morrisons is sticking to the basics and labelling them as simply “flat”.

At the other end of the scale, Waitrose has always believed in providing that extra line or two of information. A good example is the packs of red and white radish, priced at 99p, that aeons ago in the wholesale markets was nicknamed “French breakfast” - the reason being that porters used to enjoy them as a snack with butter and salt.

Staying with vegetables, the British seem to be increasing their taste for sweet potatoes, doubtless helped at this time of year by consumers firing up their barbecues. Arrivals from the southern states of the US led the charge and have since been joined by other sources. At Sainsbury’s, under its Taste the Difference brand and presented in a net, the source is South Africa and the variety called Bush-Bok.

Steady demand as well as seasonality are the two magnets that also attract lesser-known sources and while Ecuador is recognised as a major banana producer, it has other strings to its bow. Melons are arriving, but Sainsbury’s is concentrating on physalis.

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