Okra is being added to the range

Okra is being added to the range

Tesco is increasing its range of exotic fruit and veg items this week, in a bid to respond to consumer demand for more unusual lines.

The UK’s largest retailer is doubling its range of world food produce to 50 items, and says demand for such produce is no longer restricted to areas with established large ethnic communities, but has grown to 700 stores across the UK.

The new range will feature box talkers, giving basic information about where the food comes from and photos of how to prepare it. New additions include mooli, a white radish from India, chow chow, a slightly bitter gourd, and dudhi, an Indian courgette-like vegetable that can be used in stir fries. Plantain and okra are also being added.

Independent retail analyst TNS says that the UK exotic produce market is now worth £395 million a year, and is growing at 33.6 per cent annually.

Tesco ethnic produce buyer Jonathan Corbett said: “There is no better example of how multicultural Britain has become than through the rich diversity of the foods we can now buy in our supermarkets.

“Demand for exotic produce is rocketing as a direct result of that multiculturalism, and these days our staff are as likely to be asked for a kilo of plantains or butternut squash as sprouts or broccoli.

“Until a few years ago we stocked just a handful of the more popular exotic vegetables such as sweet potatoes, butternut squash, chillis and yams, and these were sold in areas where there were large ethnic communities.

“But now that multiculturalism has crossed over to our mainstream business, and we’re finding that shoppers are becoming more adventurous when buying produce.”