Tesco has moved a step closer to procuring all of the apples and pears it sells in the UK direct from source, after making plans to further increase the volume of top fruit it buys from growers via its fresh produce direct procurement arm Group Food Sourcing (GFS).

According to FPJ’s sister title Eurofruit, it is understood that Tesco is negotiating an end to its current contract with Cambridgeshire-based firm Sydney Hart, but will retain the services of importer-distributor Empire World Trade and Kent-based Richard Hochfeld to manage certain elements of its domestic and imported apple and pear programme into the UK. Worldwide Fruit, meanwhile, continues to provide the retailer with a limited volume of Jazz.

An industry insider said: “This is a continuation of Tesco’s move to GFS. They have other suppliers outside GFS and they will always need to – you have to have a back-up plan – but they probably felt they didn’t need as many as they had.” Tesco is believed to have removed Sydney Hart from its southern hemisphere supplier base during the second half of last year and subsequently phased it out of its northern hemisphere procurement arrangements. Sources suggest the supplier will continue to provide the retailer with British apples until the end of March, at which point its contract is due to be closed.

The past three years have seen GFS build closer links with top-fruit grower-exporters around the globe, introducing where possible more direct lines of procurement and cutting the number of third-party service providers it employs. For a number of those grower-exporters, including several in Europe as well as counter-seasonal suppliers in countries like Chile, New Zealand and South Africa, switching to a direct supply model has helped them to remain competitive while affording Tesco greater control over the fruit.

Sources familiar with the situation at GFS claim as much as 75 per cent of all the apples sold in Tesco’s British stores are now sourced direct from growers through the division. Asked to comment on its plan to delist Sydney Hart, the retailer refused to confirm or deny such a decision had been taken. A spokesperson for Sydney Hart told Eurofruit the company was “in discussions with Tesco regarding future supply arrangements” and is currently “supplying to agreed programmes”, but declined to comment further.

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