Bradford-based supermarket Morrisons is cashing in on Britain's growing taste for sophisticated food by filling its shelves with a new range of strange fruit - red bananas.

Grown slower than the yellow variety, the red banana plant takes ten months to fruit, six months to mature and then five days to ripen.

A spokesman said the red-skinned fruit with pink flesh is "enticing customers. Critics, however, say they are "a gimmick".

Andrew Wilby, chairman of the Yorkshire Independ-ent Grocers Association, said: "We work on the system where bananas are yellow, tomatoes are red and green peppers are green.

"The supermarkets' buying power has a significant effect on independent retailers, but a strong and well-resourced independent can fight back.

"A good independent will always give a better customer experience.

"I think, more importantly, people should consider the quality, the freshness and the value for money than a gimmicky colour."

Richard Musgrave, owner of the Orange Grove greengrocers in Bingley Road, Saltaire, said he had tried selling red bananas seven or eight years ago but they didn't catch on.

"It is a bit of a gimmick really," he said.

"You pay more than for normal bananas and that tends to put people off. And the variety is really small. Also, you can't tell when they are ripe."

Michael Barker, of The Grocer magazine, said supermarkets were increa-singly selling more exotic fruit. New fruits include the pluot, a cross between an apricot and a plum which is marketed as less hairy than an apricot and less messy than a plum, and peaches and nectarines with flat bottoms.

Mr Barker said: "This just draws attention to the fact that Morrisons is stocking a wide variety of produce. I don't think red bananas are something the smaller shops will be too worried about.

"But there is always the wider issue that every day, it is becoming harder for small retailers to compete with the supermarkets."