British retailer Tesco is seeing the highest demand for organic fruit in a decade, with shoppers responding well to its initiatives to promote the category.

The supermarket’s sales of organic fruit have grown by more than 18% over the last year, which it claims is a direct result of its commitment to offering customers a wide range of great quality organics and continuing to cut prices.

"We strongly believe that great quality, organic produce should be an affordable option for families," says Tesco fruit commercial manager Gareth Wilcock in a release.

"The revival of organic foods has been gathering pace over the last few years, with keener prices and better availability both playing a major part in that. We have been working hard to get better quality, organic produce to stores as quickly as possible, to provide extra days of freshness for customers.

"Smaller snacking pack sizes for several key organic berry fruit lines, has also helped with portion control and cutting down on potential food waste."

The most popular fruit items at Tesco last year included bananas (up 27%), citrus (up 17%), mangoes and other exotics (up 8%) and apples and pears (up 8%).

Tesco’s main U.K. organic fruit grower, Organic Farm Foods, supplies a variety of produce including apples, pears, grapes, watermelons, kiwifruit and mangoes.

Managing director Adam Wakeley says his company is working hard to stay ahead of demand and keep up with the trend towards organics.

"Traditionally the two biggest challenges for organic produce have been price and availability and we have been working closely with Tesco and our growers around the world to improve availability as we move between seasons.

"We are particularly focusing on bridging the gaps in supply to ensure customers can receive a consistent year round offer."

www.freshfruitportal.com