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Get your free copy27 March 2009, 18:33 PM
- Tesco has reported a sharp 30% sales increase in locally sourced foods in this calendar year to date, with products such as East Anglian rapeseed oil, Cornish Brie, Hampshire watercress and Northumbrian black-faced lamb coming up trumps for the multiple.
According to the Tesco local produce website, many of the best goods in the world are produced in the UK, and regional pride is taken in the opportunity to celebrate the local, and the parochial, in the food industry.
Tesco executive director, Lucy Neville-Rolfe, said, “Customers want to know where their food is from and they want to support local businesses. Last summer we sold 5,400 packs of local watercress every week in Hampshire stores – almost twice the national sales figure.”
She added, “Our aim is to ensure that locally sourced produce becomes part of our mainstream offer to all our customers.”
The chain has 7,000 regional lines of products, including 600 in Wales, 1,500 Irish lines and 1000 in Scotland. It looks set to shift £500 million worth of locally sourced food and drink this year and aims to sell £1 billion by 2011. It also plans to offer more local produce than any of its rivals.
