Demand for British food continues to grow says Tesco boss

Fresh food sales at Tesco have climbed by 6.6% on the previous year, according to its chief executive, Ashwin Prasad.

Mr Prasad stated that demand for “fresh healthy British home-grown food” had never been stronger among its customers, during an address at the NFU Conference in Birmingham on Wednesday 25 February.

He added that Tesco was striving to “always put British food first”, at a time when “other retailers are looking elsewhere”.

See also: Tesco rules out chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef

The major food retailer aims to sell 100% fresh British chicken, milk, and eggs, along with 100% fresh British and Irish beef, however the same commitment has not been offered for lamb.

Mr Prasad said: “We’re witnessing a shift in the needs of our customers, and they’re asking for more help, especially when it comes to eating more healthily.

“We should all be really proud that sales of home-grown fresh food are increasing year on year.

“To meet this growing demand, it’s vital that we establish effective partnerships that really do build resilience across the UK agriculture sector.

“We want to continue to build this resilience within government and in industry and for this to happen, we have to be supported by effective legislation.”

Imports 

NFU president Tom Bradshaw raised concerns around unfair competition from imports in other food products at retail outside of the fresh food aisle, such as sandwiches and ready meals.

He said: “Nobody understands where that poultry in their sandwiches might be coming from, if it is imported and it’s not produced to domestic standards.

 “We have a belief that we need to implement core standards in production so that we can legislate to make imports illegal that are produced to lower standards.”

Level playing field

Mr Prasad welcomed the findings from the Batters Review into farm profitability.

“That strategy must set a long-term vision for UK agriculture that creates a level playing field for all parts of the food industry and protects the high standards that we have already developed.”

He also called for planning reform to remain a priority, in order to allow farm businesses to build the required infrastructure needed to boost domestic production and meet the jump in demand for fresh food.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw added: “As the largest purchaser of the products that we produce, Tesco has a crucial role to play in making sure we can all build our businesses with confidence into the future.”