Marks and Spencer is adding mini-avocados, which have enjoyed a large boost in popularity through their presence on social media, to its fresh produce category, theindependent.co.uk reports.
In the past, these fruits have been dismissed by supermarkets under the premise that they are too small to be marketed, but M&S is now selling them in bags of five, which retail at £2.
The popularity of avocados has surged as a by-product of their internet presence – they are most 'Instagrammed' and 'Pinterested' fruit.
In the US for example, avocado-consumption during 2015 was more than twice what it was in 2005, according to the Washington Post.
Professorial research associate at the food studies centre of Soas, University of London, Anne Murcott, said of their UK presence, “If the ideas of [something being a] superfood are repeated sufficiently frequently, and it is talked about from posh dinner parties to Weight Watchers, you see how things swirl around. That implies that they can sell them to a wide range [of people].”
The M&S mini-avocados are sourced from Malaga, Spain.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
