Asda has plans to significantly increase its level of British sourcing and end years of undertrading in domestic fruit.
The supermarket has already increased its efforts to get more British produce on shelves, but plans are in place to go much further, Nick Scrase, md of Asda-owned supplier International Produce Ltd (IPL), told freshinfo.
“It is important we do recognise the need and our responsibility to do a better job [of sourcing British] and we have done a better job in the last 12 months,” he said. “Will we do more? Yes, I think inevitably we will.”
Scrase admitted that Asda had “neglected UK top fruit a little bit over the last five years” but had its “best year ever” last year, was first to market on a number of varieties and is giving strong backing to Discovery at the start of this season.
Berry buyer Shane Newman said the retailer had not imported a single box during the British season, while top-fruit buyer Samantha Mills said Asda’s top-fruit share was up from nine per cent to 11 per cent this year with further growth planned.
Scrase rejected the suggestion that Britishness was less important to Asda shoppers than it was to those of other supermarkets. “For Asda customers it’s no less important. If you look at the work we’ve done this season on berries, we’ve had an absolute sea change on the back of the best UK season we’ve ever had. One of the reasons for that is we are now using an IPL model to purchase that fruit. We have a separate facility in Evesham and we’ve done a better job than we’ve ever done before on UK berries so we’re starting to redress the point.”
IPL was also keen to support the development of more domestic infrastructure, Scrase added. “I’m still struck by the opportunity that we have in this country to put down more glass or better quality glass. I hope that is the case and I think with our business model there’s a way we can encourage that sort of level of investment. We are in some conversations now with some people over whether they should do that.”
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