ED CAN’T HOW EXCITED HE IS

ED BALLS is wearing a hard hat and orange hi-vis and marvelling at containers of bananas. Later, he’s thrilled to get the chance to drive a lorry loaded with avocados, a transporter packed with BMWs and an oil tanker.

But this isn’t just boys and their toys. Along with Ade Adepitan and Cherry Healey, he’s investigating how all our favourite products magically land in our local shops.

“We take it for granted that we can buy almost anything we want, any time we want it,” says Ed. “This is the incredible story of what Britain buys and sells in a day.” And he’s right, it is pretty incredible.

Standing at London Gateway, a huge port on the Thames, we can see the vast operation that brings fruit and veg both into and out of the country.

Around £5.5m worth of food has arrived before 7am in millions of refrigerated boxes. And there’s plenty of innovation, too. “So the container comes in full of bananas and then goes out with a Mini!” exclaims Ed.

In this episode, Ade is in Peru where he witnesses the impact of our love of avocados. The decade’s biggest food trend, it has transformed the economy for farmers.

Meanwhile, Cherry meets British producers, including one who is keeping the Middle East supplied with apples deemed too big by UK customers.

Ed says: “British spuds to Ireland, langoustine to France, prawns to Spain, BMW cars to Germany – I had no idea of the vast array of products that U.K. producers today export all around the world.”