Tesco will be continuing to increase its stocks of UK-grown produce as it responds to customers’ desire for locally produced food, the retailer’s fruit technical manager, Shaun Doherty has said.
Doherty told a BIFGA technical meeting in Kent that the company had switched its focus ‘on to the community and local UK sourcing.’ Consumer fears over global warming, food miles and carbon footprints are driving the approach.
Tesco spent much of the last year on a public relations drive to stress its commitment to local food and accessibility for small producers. This included the opening up of seven new regional buying offices and a new website where producers can sign up to supply the retailer.
Doherty said that the firm’s commitment to UK food was underlined by its ‘heritage’ television advertisements, the British Food Festival, its ‘grower focus’ of putting growers’ faces on packaging and shelf barkers, and its drive to get local produce into local stores. He added that the company had been working with Brogdale to help preserve the collection.
As a further example Doherty said that the supermarket had this year replaced a lot of its imported Gala apples from September to January with UK fruit. And he called on growers to approach the retailer with reasons to stock their product: “We want you to come to us with stories of why your products are unique. Is your product unique in its area, or from a unique heritage?” he asked.
But he said UK products must be comparable with imported fruit in terms of quality, growers must understand market trends and be as efficient in their production methods as possible.
And he called on growers to consider diversification by supplying for instance, Tesco and farmers’ markets, or growing a wider range of products.
Packaging pledge
However when confronted over the amount of waste packaging in produce, Doherty conceded: “Tesco don’t have a very good policy on this and we must do something. We are looking at reducing packaging. In the next year our policy will be changing and you’ll see a change in our packaging.”
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