Archived press release

Supermarkets Abandoning UK Fruit Farmers

18 November 2003

A new survey released today [1] shows that the UK's two biggest supermarkets, Asda and Tesco, are abandoning British farmers by importing the majority of their apples at the height of the UK apple season. The survey, carried out by Friends of the Earth, reveals supermarkets favour overseas apples, with some fruit travelling around 20,000 km to reach the shelves - despite this year's home grown crop being recognised by an industry journal as "the best for many years" [2].

Friends of the Earth is warning that Government intervention is needed to stop the biggest supermarkets abusing their market position and wants supermarkets to make a commitment to sourcing more British produce in season and to pay growers a fair price for fruit and vegetables. Tesco and Asda have both said their policy is to source British wherever possible [3], but the evidence for apples shows a different reality.

The environmental campaign group is now calling on the Government to introduce a new Supermarket Code of Practice to stop unfair trading practices - such as late payments of invoices and charging growers for changes in the supermarket's packaging specifications - and to set up an independent supermarket watchdog to protect both consumer and producer interests [4]. Smaller suppliers including many UK farmers and growers are least able to cope with unreasonable demands from the supermarkets. Friends of the Earth wants the Government to give more support to local food initiatives to help growers set up direct marketing ventures.

Friends of the Earth Food Campaigner Liz Wright said:

"The big supermarkets are using their market power to source cheap produce around the world, pushing UK growers and local shops out of business. The Government must stop supermarkets abusing their powerful position. If this trend continues UK apples could end up as a niche market with the majority of apples coming from overseas - causing transport-related pollution."

The research also revealed that supermarket "Healthy Eating" labelling, aimed at parents can come at a high price with `Kids Snack Pack Carrots` on sale at 13 times the price of `Value' carrots in Tesco and `Snack Pack Carrot Crunchies' 10 times more than loose carrots in Asda.

Despite claims on price, Friends of the Earth found markets stalls were the cheapest place to buy apples. Tesco was, on average, more expensive than greengrocers. Convenience stores were generally more expensive than supermarkets but shopping at local stores can save on transport costs.

Between 1990 and 2000 the amount of apple orchards in the UK halved and around 200 apple growers left the industry [5]. Planting an orchard is a long term commitment so growers need to be confident of a market and a fair price for their produce if these trends are to be reversed.

Both Tesco and Asda had fewer UK apples on their shelves than when surveyed last year. Locally sourced apples were even harder to find. Farmers' markets are the best place to buy local produce but greengrocers provided more home grown fruit than supermarkets and also sold some local fruit and vegetables. There are over 2,000 varieties of apples at the National Fruit Centre in Kent but Asda and Tesco relied on imported varieties to increase their choice. Market stalls sold a wider range of UK apple varieties.

The survey showed more positive news for UK growers when it came to potatoes and carrots, with the majority home-grown.

Key results

• The average proportion of UK grown apples in Asda and Tesco stores was 38%. Greengrocers provided 46% UK apples.
• Tesco had slightly more UK non organic apples (42% UK) than Asda (32% UK) but both had slightly fewer UK apples than last year.
• A significant proportion (16%) of apples in supermarkets were imported from outside the EU including from the USA, New Zealand, Chile, Australia, South Africa and Canada
• Apples were cheaper in greengrocers and markets (including farmers' markets) than in Tesco and street markets beat Asda on price
• Almost all maincrop potatoes in all outlets were homegrown.
• The majority of carrots on sale in all outlets were also from the UK but `baby' carrots from Tesco came from Holland and Zambia
• Markets were slightly cheaper than supermarkets for `ordinary' carrots but supermarkets charged high prices for `added value' products.
• Farmers' markets are the best place to buy local produce but street markets and greengrocers also provided local apples, potatoes and carrots. Some convenience stores sold local potatoes and carrots.
• No local apples, potatoes or carrots were found in the supermarkets surveyed.
• Supermarkets provided more organic fruit and vegetables than greengrocers and street markets but availability of home grown organic apples is still very poor.

Notes

[1] Supermarkets, greengrocers and markets were surveyed in early November. Full details of the results are available in a media briefing. This is the third year that we have carried out a survey to find out where supermarkets source their apples at the height of the British season, and it is the second year we have included greengrocers and markets for comparison. It is also the second year we have looked at the price of apples. This year we also included convenience stores and we looked at potatoes and carrots as well as apples. This year due to the volume of data to be collected we only included the largest two supermarkets Tesco and Asda in our survey.

[2] The Fruit Grower, November 2003

[3] Tesco also told the BBC Radio 4 Food Programme that they are "selling more English apples than ever before, and working with growers to get more traditional varieties in stores". They claim that "at any one time there could be half a dozen English varieties on sale".

[4] A Code of Practice to protect suppliers was introduced in March 2001 but has been widely condemned by suppliers as being useless. The Competition Commission also found during its inquiry into the Safeway mergers that the Code had made little difference to the way in which supermarkets treated suppliers.

[5] English Apples and Pears, 2001

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