To celebrate their choice, the supermarket is ensuring this week that Braeburn in stores nationwide is English. "English Braeburn can compete like for like with product from other sources," buyer Marcus Hoggarth told the Journal. "It is one of the favourite varieties and the good thing is that it is home-grown. We will more than 150 tonnes this season and volumes are increasing year on year."
Sainsbury's sold around 55t of English Braeburn last year and the hot weather in the summer has helped to extend the apple season and achieve the 100 per cent UK-grown situation earlier than expected.
A Sainsbury's spokeswoman explained that customer research revealed shoppers now prefer Braeburn as it has a more complex sweet and sour flavour, is crisper than most apples and has better keeping quality than other UK-grown varieties.
"We have worked hard with our supplier to expand the Braeburn crop to respond to customer demand and are thrilled that we will be the only supermarket offering 100 per cent British Braeburn."
Keith Butterworth, commercial manager for Worldwide Fruit said: "In just a year we have tripled our output of English Braeburn apples to Sainsbury's to keep up with customer demand which is great news for us growers as it reduces imports."
Sainsbury's is now printing growers names and regions of origin on all packs of English apples. Future plans also include printing a code on all fresh produce allowing customers to log onto a website and meet the farmer to learn more about the product they are buying.
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