Tesco claims that UK demand for organic product is starting to recover are disingenuous, says the Soil Association.
According to the UK’s number-one retailer, organic produce sales are starting to see “the green shoots of recovery”, but Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett believes that any drop in Tesco sales of organics was led by the multiple itself and so talk of a recovery is misleading.
He said: “It is worth bearing in mind that last year Tesco saw a bigger drop than many of the multiples in sales of organics, while some of the others, such as Asda, had a significant increase. Tesco cleared some of the space it devoted to organics to make way for cheaper lines and they lost customers because of it. The national media leapt on it as an organic sales crash but actually it was due to Tesco’s change in policy. Now Tesco has realised it made a mistake and is putting organics back on the shelves.”
The retailer is aiming to encourage shoppers back to its organic range with some targeted activity next week. Senior organic produce buyer Andrea Mulqueen said: “Since the beginning of the year, we have seen demand for organic produce growing on a monthly basis, with the decline reversing so much that the market could be back on track by the autumn. While we are not out of the forest yet, there is still a lot we plan to do to woo back customers, such as Organic Produce week, which will have many special offers.”
The special offers include half-price deals and £1 offers.
Melchett said: “In principle, we are keen on anything to encourage more people to try organic, but we are also keen that they understand the real cost of producing good food. We would like reassurance that growers are not being asked to fund these promotions.”
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