In November, Tesco hopes to be welcoming into its stores a new organic potato variety grown exclusively for the retailer. The variety is called Vales Everest, which is grown by Greenvale AP and completed highly successful trials in Scotland last year.
According to Tesco’s organics buyer, Jonathan Corbett, the new variety is akin to the Vales Sovereign variety but with a few telling improvements.
“Like the Vales Sovereign, it is very versatile,” he said, “but it has a deeper flavour than this variety. Without doubt this represents a positive step forward for organic potatoes.”
According to growers Greenvale, the Vales Everest is also very high yielding and particularly resistant to disease.
Mr Corbett said that Tesco was eager to guarantee availability of its organic potatoes following last year’s floods. “We are working with growers to ensure production is sufficient,” he said. “Even this year, availability has not been good.”
