Asda has seen great developments in its watercress trade over the last few years, with improved quality and continued growth in the prepared salad market.

The store's press officer, Dominic Burch, told freshinfo: 'We are working a lot more closely with the grower and tightening up on the quality of product coming through the backdoor. The growers have taken this on board and we are seeing quality starting at source rather than when it is packed. There is now less variation in size.

'Developments going forward will see us growing a proportion of watercress under protective structures during the winter months to improve availability and quality further.' Burch explained that as consumers become more imaginative and adventurous in their eating habits, the leafy salad market will carry on prospering. 'Eating-out occasions are increasing and many people have at least one foreign holiday a year. And on this basis they are being exposed to different continental leaves, and they are more willing to pick up the products in supermarkets.' The challenge for supermarkets with watercress, said Burch, is to encourage the younger generation of shoppers to take up the line as at the moment the majority of consumers are older.

'Asda is in the fortunate situation of playing 'catch up' to the rest of the high street,' added Burch. 'The Asda customer base is still fairly traditional and, in terms of salads, prefers wholehead rather than prepared bags. However, the last few years have seen Asda grow ahead of the market as consumers start to buy into prepared salads which are still very much in the growth stage. Other multiples, eg Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer etc, started out in prep earlier than Asda and are now approaching maturity, so we will see their growth slow down as we go forward.' With a policy of sourcing as much of its produce from the UK as possible, Burch pointed out that Asda is keen to source watercress from UK growers whenever it can – although at some times of the year this just cannot be achieved.

'Ideally we would like everything to be grown in the UK but this is not possible. We do try to source from the UK for as long as possible through out the year and then move to farms in southern Europe. '