Fruit Logistica satiates retailers' hunger for newly invented produce

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/08/fruit-logistica-newly-invented-produce

Version 0 of 1.

Fancy a plum that tastes like bubblegum, citrus caviar, kiwis the size of raspberries or Tutti Frutti purple grapes that taste of mangoes?

They may sound like Frankenstein fruits, but these are just some of hundreds of newly invented products competing for the attention of supermarkets at the world's largest fruit and veg trade fair this week.

Worried that consumers are bored of bananas and Granny Smith apples, Britain's biggest supermarkets have sent dozens of expert buyers to find the next big thing at the Fruit Logistica exhibition on the outskirts of Berlin this week. And some of these fantastical crops will be gracing the shelves of British grocers soon.

Shazad Rehman, a Marks & Spencer fruit buyer, said Fruit Logistica was so important to helping the supermarket spot the latest fruit inventions that the whole of M&S's fruit and veg buying team has been dispatched .

"Innovation is inherent in M&S's 129-year history. We need to know what varieties will be out in five years time," he said. "We want to be first to have pretty much all of them."

He said new and unusual fruits had become a key battle ground for Britain's supermarkets because innovative products "give customers excitement when they walk into the store". Newly-invented fruit and veg now accounts for 15% of all of M&S's fresh produce sales.

Signing exclusive deals with the inventors of the next big thing is so commercially important to supermarkets that Rehman, and other British buyers, refused to disclose many details of fruits in the pipeline. "It is very secretive," he said. "It can take 10 years to develop a new fruit, and it's expensive."

Recent successes include the Papple, a pear that looks like an Apple, Tutti Frutti purple grapes that taste like mangoes, and kiwi berries - a miniature kiwi "you pop in your mouth and it bursts with flavour".

A British seed developer that created a new type of Brussell sprout picked up one of this year's awards at Fruit Logistica. Steve Winterbottom, managing director of Tozer Seeds, based in Cobham, Surrey, said: "We felt Brussel sprouts need a shot in the arm so we created a Brussel sprout programme, in which you keep crossing lines until you get a happy marriage."

Crossing sprouts and kale resulted in the creation of flower sprouts, which look similar to regular sprouts but have long, curly leaves and a nuttier taste.

"Someone said we've developed another vegetable for kids to hate," he said. "But they're completely different from that foul smelling green mush your granny used to cook. They taste great in a stir fry with lots of chilli."

But it is the exotic fruit that grabs consumers' and buyers' attention. Rehman said recent inventions such as the mini kiwi, that were first brought to worldwide attention at Fruit Logisitica, are now so popular with consumers that they are struggling to keep up with demand.

"We can't grow enough kiwi berries," he said. "They are only available for such a short window of five to six weeks in April/May and around September and October from the northern and southern hemisphere harvests." Another big success last year were bubblegum plums, officially named Flavour Kings, which Rehman says are "amazing" and will now be sold in place of all other plums for the whole of their six week season. "Once you taste them, you won't go back," he said.

For every successful fruit invention there are as many as a 100 disasters. Rehman said the team behind the Papple, which is a cross between a European and Asian pear and is grown in New Zealand, had made hundreds of different hybrid seeds which all had to be grown into mature trees "before they had any idea what the fruit would taste like".

"They would have planted hectares of trees, it might not have been very nice and then you've got to dig it all up," he said. "It is very expensive if you look at all the research and development and the man hours."

Rehman said M&S had an "innovation calendar" of when the next fruit inventions will be ready to trial in its stores, but declined to give any hints of what sort of unusual things we can expect to find in stores next year.

The vagaries of trying to grow hybrid plants can make it very difficult to predict when, or even if, a fruit in the pipeline will make it to the shelves. Rehman said he had spoken to a grower M&S had contracted to start work on a new type of peach in 2006, but was warned it won't be ready until at least 2016.

While some new products have been in planning for decades, other new fruits turn up unannounced in the post at M&S's head office in central London.

"We've got an almost mad scientist, brilliant grower in Israel who just sends over parcels of more than 20 varieties at a time," Rehman said. "He's called Seffi Ben Dor, he's got massive trial orchards and he just sends stuff straight to us. We write back with suggestions, and then get a couple in store."

Cindy van Rijswick, a fresh produce analyst at Rabobank, said growers and supermarkets spend hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to woe each other over dinners and cocktail parties at Fruit Logistica. "Some companies hire a complete hotel," she said.

Sainsbury's has sent 15 of its most senior buyers and supply chain experts to Berlin. Peter Batt, the supermarket's produce manager, said finding the best new products was essential for "attracting new and younger customers".

Batt said he had spoken to soft fruit growers who are growing 100 different varieties of raspberries and other summer fruits, but warned it will take a decade before any of them are ready to sell in store.

"Most people don't think there is such a thing as new fruits, but they are really popular," he said. "It's like wine. If you go back 10 to 20 years people only really drank core European wines, now they are all drinking new world wines."

He said the main problem in promoting new products is the difficulty of explaining to customers what the fruits are. "We do a lot of sampling programmes trying to highlight new products to our customers to encourage them not to sleep shop," he said, adding that

getting the new inventions on the menus of fancy restaurants or featured on TV shows, such as James Martin's Saturday Kitchen, was also key to their success.

Finger Limes, a previous winner of the Fruit Logisitca innovation awards, soared to global attention when the fruit, which is described as "citrus caviar" became a hit with Michelin-starred chefs, including Gordon Ramsay.

The fruit, which is grown in pods on the thorny shrub <em>Citrus australasica</em> in Australia, is a popular garnish for oysters.

Batt said Sainsbury's is currently trialling the fruit in its Tonbridge Wells branch with a view to extending it across its store network. Budgens also stocks the fruit in its Islington stores for £4.99 per 100g.