It is not very fashionable to be excited about supermarkets - and if golabki, flaki, poppyseed bread or juniper sausage feature highly on your shopping list, traditionally there has been very little to be excited about. Supermarkets rarely stack their shelves full of your favourite tripe soup or cabbage dish. Or, rather, they didn't use to.
Last September, Tesco and Sainsbury's decided it was time to cater to the estimated 600,000 Poles living in the UK (and with a disposal income of £4bn a year, you can see why). Five months after the pilot was launched, Tesco announced that Polish food was the fastest-growing "ethnic" food range in the UK, and now Asda, Morrisons and Waitrose are also improving their ranges, with food from other east European countries in the pipeline.
But if supermarkets have been quick to cater for newly settled Polish communities, how have they addressed the needs of those of us from the Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese and Jewish communities who have lived in the UK for decades?
Currently, the ethnic-minority and speciality food market in the UK is estimated to be worth £1.86bn a year. Traditionally, supermarkets have aimed these foods at the non-ethnic-minority consumer; with the advent of TV cookery shows, celebrity chefs, restaurants and recipe books and food magazines, the public's love of global cuisines has grown enormously in the past 10 years. Food manufacturers such as Noon, Patak's, S&A Foods and Sharwood's have filled supermarket shelves with ready-made meals, snacks, chutneys, cooking sauces, pastes and other convenience foods.
But expensive, processed global food in fancy packaging is not what ethnic-minority consumers want. I would much rather buy authentic spices and ingredients and cook a meal with them at home.
Supermarkets have slowly begun to under-stand our needs. With an eye, perhaps, to the UK ethnic-minority population's young age profile and disposable income (in excess of £40bn), supermarkets, with Tesco and Asda leading the way, are introducing "ethnic" aisles in their stores, stacked with specialist foods from specialist manufacturers.
Well-known brands such as Natco, Elephant Atta, Maggi, Island Delight and Walkerswood are making it on to the supermarket shelves. My local Tesco in Harrow, Middlesex, now offers not only several shelves of Polish and kosher foods, but an array of cooking oils, clarified butter, different types of flour, rice, lentils, spices, snack mixes and noodles for the Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Chinese consumer. Its "exotic" vegetable shelves include fresh curry, coriander and fenugreek leaves, okra, bitter gourd, pickling mango, yellow lime and tindoori, a small cucumber-like Indian vegetable.
And it's not just about veg. Last year Sainsbury's expanded its range of Asian products so that in some stores you can now buy Bollywood DVDS, cards and gifts for the Diwali and Eid celebrations, and health and beauty products alongside Indian foods. Both Sainsbury's and Tesco currently have 64 stores in the UK that sell a range of fresh halal poultry and red meat as approved by the Halal Food Authority, while Asda has more than 150 stores selling halal meat.
"There is no doubt that the ethnic foods market is a growing area within supermarkets," says Louise Jones, buyer for Sainsbury's foods of the world and ethnic range. "The very first ethnic range we offered our customers was kosher, more than 10 years ago. Aside from kosher, we now offer Asian, for which research shows the market is growing 40% year-on-year, Afro-Caribbean and Polish."
Khalid Sharif owns the burgeoning east London halal food company Ummah Foods, which has launched a halal chocolate range in Tesco, Asda, and Morrisons. He thinks that supermarkets are finally waking up to Muslim spending power. "There are 2 million Muslims in the UK," he says. "If supermarkets can tap into that sector with more halal products, they could make a fortune - particularly if those supermarkets expand overseas, as the global Muslim consumer market is huge."
But while it is commendable that supermarkets are stocking authentic products for ethnic-minority consumers looking for the convenience of a big store, variety is still lacking compared with specialist grocers. Prices vary between supermarkets, but while some items are competitively priced, overall, they are more expensive than most local grocers. If I can buy a large bunch of fresh coriander for 50p at my local Asian grocery shop, why would I pay 69p for half that amount from Tesco?
Besides concerns over price, there is also the experience of shopping to consider. Visit London areas as vibrant as Tooting, Southall or Wembley, and you can get a real buzz shopping at thriving cash & carry-style grocery shops where the radio is blaring out Bollywood songs and shoppers are sifting through fresh and richly-hued mounds of vegetables, chillies, herbs and dry spices. It gives the feeling of being able to buy and cook virtually anything one may have encountered anywhere. I also expect to build a rapport with my local grocer, and for him to know his products intimately - which is unlikely in a supermarket.
According to a report from ATL, a company specialising in diversity and enterprise development, 68,000 retail businesses in the UK are owned by people from ethnic minorities, many of whom buy products directly from overseas suppliers rather than from UK-based wholesalers. This means that there are often family, social and business networks at play for such retailers. Supermarkets have already wiped many independent butchers and greengrocers off our high streets; surely the last thing we need is for our ethnic-minority grocers to get swallowed up too.
But Kumar Thushyantham, owner of the Shankar superstore, an Asian grocer's in Harrow, says that while supermarkets could perhaps be a threat in the long run if they continue to expand their ranges, he isn't too worried at present. Shankar's offers an eclectic range of products, from Sri Lankan roasted and unroasted chilli powder to pickles directly imported from India and Pakistan, halal savoury snacks, dry fish from Africa, rice vinegar from south-east Asia, Polish foods, and fruit and vegetables such as guava, pawpaw, plantain flower, snake gourd, drumstick, mustard greens and a host of others I can't find in supermarkets.
"There is no reason why supermarkets and grocery shops like ours can't exist side by side for now," says Thushyantham. "Both offer customers choice and diversity" ·
