Pesticides and waste are two subjects about which it is understandable if your first reaction is to hide your head under the pillow.

As sure as grapes are grapes though, if you stay there for too long, both will rear up and bite hard. We cover both issues in depth this week and I can only add my own opinion to those of the FPC. Everyone in this industry is touched by the ignorant inaction of the few.

Too often the trade is dragged through the mire because of the commercial inability or apathy of a handful of operators. There has never been a policing system effective enough to smoke out the bandits, but it is getting closer. The intelligent don't get caught, because they do it right in the first place.

• Generic advertising is one thing, but offering a holiday to South Africa on a pack of Peruvian avocados ñ two competitive sources ñ is a strange decision.

Tesco has the packs in-store at a time when South African avos are available, but a glut of Peruvian supply, which brought prices to rock bottom levels obviously made the Latin American source more attractive for the purposes of fulfilling the promotion.

The South Africans of course have been banging the generic drum for some time. Exporters there would be happy to work alongside their Peruvian counterparts in controlling the supply to market, given the chance. But they won't enjoy seeing this marketing exercise, whatever it might do for their tourism industry.

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