Where is the harvest of Irish produce?

READERS' FORUM:Have your say

Joyanne Gissing returned recently from a holiday in Sardinia “where the sun shone, the tomatoes for sale were non-uniform in shape and local, as were the garlic, artichokes, courgettes, aubergines, rocket . . . need I go on!”

Upon her return, she and her husband, accompanied by their youngest child, decided to escape the driving rain and do their weekly shop in Tesco in Clare Hall in Dublin. The family headed for the fruit and veg aisle to stock up. “After picking up the requisite bunch of bananas we headed for the apples. I first selected a bag of pink ladies and noticed they were from New Zealand. I quickly put them down – not that I have anything against NZ; indeed I am married to a Kiwi, but I do not see the necessity to buy southern hemisphere apples in Ireland in September,” she writes.

She then picked up some Braeburn apples thinking at least they would be from either the UK or Ireland, but no, they were from South Africa.

“As a last-ditch effort I picked up a bag of Market Value apples, and looked at the label to see they were Gala apples from Spain. Forgive me, but have we just experienced one of the better summers in some people’s living memory? Is anyone with any sort of an apple tree in their back garden offloading apples galore to their friends, classmates and work colleagues due to the glut of apples produced this year while our largest supermarket is only stocking southern hemisphere (where it is winter, by the way) and Market Value Spanish apples?”

She marched up to customer services and asked to speak to the manager in charge of fresh produce. She was kept waiting 10 minutes with no sign of anyone coming to meet her. “Then the manager of technical goods, seeing me getting more tetchy, piped up was there anything he could help with. I asked him what month we are in, he answers September. I then asked him are apples generally produced in Ireland in September - he said yes, they generally are, and then I asked him why are there only NZ, South African and Spanish available in this store. His answer? Oh, that is what Keelings give us. I asked, do Tesco not dictate what Keelings supply them and he said no, Keelings just provides the best-looking produce available.”

Our reader said she hoped customer opinion was passed back up the line and marched away feeling even more dejected about Irish society and how the supermarkets are dictating what the Irish consumer wants.

“I wish the large supermarkets would actually seek out the opinion of the Irish consumer because we do not want New Zealand onions in July, South African apples in September or Dutch carrots in February.”

Joyanne suggests that PriceWatch should “name and shame the supermarkets not supporting Irish producers and offering tasteless food items ripened unnaturally and adding unnecessary air miles.”

No to health nuts

Having bought 100 grams of walnut halves in Tesco for €1.15, Louis O’Flaherty called into Holland and Barrett just to check their price. “In their furtherance of the healthy options they charge €3.59 for 100 grams. Does this mean it costs more than three times as much to stay healthy?”

Happy to help with health insurance

Just time for some shameless self-congratulation and a reminder that there are savings to be made on health insurance policies. A reader saw our recent article on the potential for savings in health insurance and got in touch with VHI. “They switched me and my wife from Plan D and Health Steps Gold to the corporate executive plan,” he writes. “There is a saving of almost €500 per annum in this switch. Also, the benefits for GP visits, consultant fees etc are far better under the new policy. We would like to express our thanks to you and your team for such helpful and valuable advice.”