IN FRUIT
Blood oranges and Josephine pears remain very good value. At this time of the year, there are more small bananas than in summer. We will start to sell these loose and they will be a bit better priced than the large fruit. To me they are the best eating fruit and the best size for the school lunchbox. The excellent supply of avocados continues and prices remain good value, have a look at the imperfect line in our shops, they are cheap.
The real action is in the berry category. Strawberries are really in glut and only the absolute premium fruit is in demand. Be very careful with cheaper fruit, lots of it is being carried in coolrooms, if you see even one rotten berry in the punnet just don’t buy from that stack. Blueberries are really coming into their own and this will be the case for the next month or so. Again, the premium lines are the ones to buy. In all HFM stores we have two or more lines of these berries, in my view, the premium is the way to go. Imported grapes are still air freighted and so quite dear, next week will see sea freight start to arrive and prices will fall accordingly.
IN VEGETABLES
We are in the process of switching our asparagus supply to all Australian product. It is weeks fresher than the imported option but just a far superior product. By next week we will be all Australian. Expect to pay a bit more but enjoy a better product. Broccoli, cauliflowers and beans all continue to be good value. We have a very good value special on loose brushed potatoes this week. They won’t continue at this price, they are top quality and keeping very well so why not buy a few extra? Other good value this week is to be found in imperfect eggplant, Chinese cabbage and English spinach. As spring approaches, warmer days will bring vegetable prices down over the coming weeks.
