The citrus market holds important value to Tesco and as the UK’s number one retailer it is focused on delivering quality produce to its customers.
The supermarket’s senior buying manager Wendie Scott is working hard to ensure the group maintains its position. “Tesco is the market leader in citrus in the UK,” says Scott. “We believe this is due to three key strengths. We have excellent availability across a wide choice of citrus products. Secondly, low-priced products and an exciting promotional strategy. Thirdly, we have quality produce available throughout the year.”
Scott says that there have been some significant developments across citrus lines in the last 12 months. “Within oranges, consumers’ preference of Navel types is continuing to strengthen, as opposed to Valencia types. Large fruit is also being very well received - even in multipacks,” she says. “The only exception here is juicing packs where size and appearance is less relevant to customers.”
Scott says that in the soft citrus range mandarins are experiencing significant growth. “Mandarins are more difficult to peel than both satsumas and clementines. But, consumers are beginning to recognise that most Mandarin varieties are fuller flavoured and even richer than many clementine varieties,” she says. “Overall though, trends are moving strongly towards easy peelers and away from more traditional hard citrus.”
Tesco is busy running promotions across the board in citrus, but according to Scott, different areas require different promotional mechanics. “People won’t bulk-buy lemons and limes but we aim to increase consumption across all lines by applying the relevant mechanics to the relevant fruit type. For example, multisaver offers on multipack easy-peel, extra-free offers in grapefruit and oranges and multisaver offers in loose lemons and limes.”
Tesco has experienced little difficulty with supply in the last year and Scott says that the company’s approach to sourcing citrus helps ensure they have quality produce available to it. “The Spanish rain early in the season has caused some concerns over quality, but broadly speaking availability has been excellent,” she says. “Our approach to sourcing citrus is simple. We source the right citrus for our customer. We have an expert supply base who source from around the world. Within our supply base there are differing areas of expertise. Some suppliers have excellent new variety development processes and we are working with them to cultivate new, customer-focused varieties. Others have geographical expertise, for example, they may able to source excellent early season Peruvian satsumas. Others may only become part of our programme once we are in main-season Argentina. We are in a position where we can obtain the best-available citrus all year-round.”
Tesco’s Nature’s Choice programme aims to protect and care for the environment within the group’s supply chain. Food production can cause some disruption to the natural environment but Tesco says that Nature’s Choice is about identifying and adopting farming systems and practices to lessen this effect. Scott says: “All our products fall into the scheme. Nature’s Choice is about sharing best practice. It aims to reassure our customers that our products are grown to the highest standards in terms of caring for the environment and ensuring excellent quality.”
Scott also says that there is plenty of room for development across Tesco’s citrus offer. The group is concentrating on being able to bring the best varieties to its customers. Citrus is an important area totalling 18 per cent of the chain’s fruit sales. “Customers would buy satsumas all year-round if we were able to source them,” says Scott. “The variety development programmes are providing continuing opportunities to bring better varieties to customers, and therefore increase consumption.”
A focus on healthier eating among consumers also provides Tesco with an opportunity within the marketplace. Scott says: “There is a growing trend among consumers to adopt healthier lifestyles. This trend is less towards weight loss and more towards health and well-being. Consumers recognise that all fruit is good from them and the fact that citrus is rich in vitamin C is widely accepted.”
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