Archived press release

Tesco comes bottom of the class for apple sourcing

11 November 2005

A new survey released today (Friday 11^th November) shows that Britain's biggest supermarket is failing British apple growers by importing the vast majority of its apples at the height of the UK apple season. The survey, carried out by Friends of the Earth, found that Tesco was the worst of the supermarkets for UK sourcing, despite proclaiming their commitment to English fruit growing [1].

The survey also revealed a poor show for UK apple sourcing overall, with nearly two thirds of apple lines on supermarket shelves sourced from overseas. Some apples had traveled around 20,000 km to reach UK stores.

In comparison, local greengrocers included in the survey obtained half of their apple lines from the UK - and stocked a far more diverse range of apples. Somerfield was found to have the highest percentage of UK apples with 42 per cent followed by Sainsbury with 40 per cent.

Friends of the Earth said that the rapid expansion of supermarkets was driving independent stores out of business, reducing the potential outlets for UK suppliers (2,000 independent stores closed in the last year alone [2]) and reducing consumer choice. The environmental campaign group is calling on the Government to take action to break up the supermarket monopoly and to set up an independent supermarket watchdog to protect both consumer and producer interests.

Friends of the Earth Food Campaigner Robin Webster 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 and also contributing to climate change. The Government must stop supermarkets abusing their powerful position. If this trend continues, British apples could end up as a niche market with the majority of apples coming from overseas."

In 2003 Tesco promised that "we don't import from August through to February from any Southern Hemisphere country," [3]. But in the middle of this year's UK apple season nearly a quarter of apple lines in their stores were found to come from outside the EU, including imported apples from New Zealand, Chile and South Africa.

Most of the big stores were found to be promoting UK fruit, but Friends of the Earth warned that price promotions can damage growers, who are often expected to bear the cost of the promotion. UK growers continue to complain of profits which are "wafer thin." Over the last 10 years the amount of land covered by apple orchards has almost halved as a result of uncertainties over the market price [4].

John Breach Chairman of the British Independent Fruit Growers' Association said

"In such a wonderful crop year we are particularly disappointed to see the low levels of support for the UK grower. It's a real shame that the other big supermarkets do not appear to be matching the effort put in by Sainsbury's who, this year, are showing what can be done."

Key results

• Overall, 35 per cent of supermarket apple lines were sourced from the UK. This is a slight fall from the figure of 38% in 2003 (when Tesco and Asda only were surveyed). Tesco, the UK's biggest retailer, showed the biggest fall (28% as opposed to 42% in 2003).
• In 2003 Tesco claimed that they don't import any apples from southern hemisphere countries during the growing season. In this study one quarter of their apples were from countries outside the EU. If they are not being imported at this time these must be apples which are imported, stored, then sold during the UK season
• In all the supermarkets surveyed, nearly one third of apples (32%) were sourced from outside the EU, compared to 16% in 2003 (when only Tesco and Asda were surveyed).
• The total number of varieties of UK apple in the supermarkets surveyed was 25, compared to 51 in the greengrocers surveyed. This is despite the fact that nearly three times as many supermarkets were surveyed as greengrocers. There are over 2,000 different varieties of UK apple [5]
• Just over one half of the supermarket stores surveyed had organic apples on sale - but less than one fifth (18%) of organic supermarket apple lines were from the UK. The majority (56%) were from outside the EU.

Notes

[1] Friends of the Earth surveyed a total of 181 supermarkets and 63 greengrocers across the UK. Supermarket stores were visited Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Somerfield and Tesco. The data was collected on 15 October 2005. Volunteers collected data on the country of origin and variety of apples in store.

A full briefing detailing the results of Friends of the Earth's apple survey 2005 is available from the press office or online at:
www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/applesurvey.pdf (PDF)

[2] Association of Convenience Stores

[3] Quote from interview with Well Grage Sage from Tesco on Farming Today, 19 November 2003

[4] Defra statistics: in 1994/5 16,178 ha were covered by apple orchards in the UK. In 2004/5 predicted figures indicate that 9,150 are covered by apple orchards. Calculated from figures at http://statistics.defra.gov.uk/esg/publications/bhs/2005/fruit.pdf

[5] www.brogdale.org

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust