The East of England Co-op has sold more than £1 million of local produce in two weeks as part of its Sourced Locally Fortnight campaign.
The initiative ran in the first two weeks of June across food storesin Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, andencourages customers to swap products in their basket for local alternatives. This year's total surpassed the £999,000 achieved last year.
The campaign saw nearly 57,000 punnets of strawberries, over 11,000 punnets of raspberries, almost 10,000 packs of sandwich ham trim and almost 600 bottles of Adnams Copper House gin sold.Thousands of local products were available, from fruit and vegetables to jams and chutneys, meat, fish, pies, fruit juices and wines.
A number of events and competitions were also held alongside, include a MasterChef-style invention test using locally sourced products, involving students from Suffolk New College in Ipswich.
Roger Grosvenor, joint chief executive at the East of England Co-op, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have exceeded the £1m mark for the 2019 Sourced Locally Fortnight campaign.
“We are so fortunate to have delicious, fresh produce on our doorsteps and this campaign has truly celebrated the journey from field and farm to fork.
“It has been incredible to see our loyal customers make a real effort to support our local producers during Sourced Locally Fortnight.”
