Asda has issued a five-point rebuttal to Friends of the Earth criticism emphasising its support for UK top-fruit growers.
"This season we're up over 20 per cent in terms of our British apple sales compared to last yea," said a spokesman. "Cox is nearer 30 per cent, that's total volumes, not just like-for-like sales." FoE had slammed Asda and Tesco for importing fruit in preference to home-grown supplies and offering a more limited range than street markets.
"We've been particularly concerned in recent years at a drop in Cox consumption," said the Asda spokesman. "That's why this year it's had special treatment in our stores - more shelf space; front of store positioning; each crate had a Union Jack liner to ensure that all customers knew it was English; the retail price for Cox has been kept low while paying growers a return based on a higher retail price," said Asda's spokesman.On top of this we also had an English Cox sampling day on October 26 across every Asda store."
The store highlighted it offers 13 English dessert varieties in season and also claimed to meet demand for local produce with Kent apples accounting for 90 per cent of English apples sold in the Asda outlets in the county. Asda is also working on expanding the local initiative to the West Midlands and Wisbech.
But FoE researchers could not find local apples in any of the supermarkets, including Asda, surveyed earlier this month and is calling on government to "stop supermarkets abusing their powerful position" by introducing a supermarket watchdog and code of practice.
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