Asda pledges to hold organic margins
23 June 2000
Asda pledges to hold organic margins
By FWi staff
A LEADING supermarket has pledged not to squeeze producers margins despite cutting organic prices.
Asda has announced that it will offer its range of organic meat, previously only available in the south east, at all hypermarkets.
And to mark the event the chain will cut organic meat prices by an average of 8%.
The store will also reduce prices of frozen organic chips, peas and mixed vegetables, following moves by the Iceland chain to offer organics at standard produce prices.
Asda says it is determined to keep to a pledge that an average basket of its organics will be 5-10% cheaper than competitors.
But the store has also sought to reassure organic farmers that their premiums would not be the casualties of an organic price war.
Spokeswoman Rachel Fellows said: “We are going to invest our profits to make a cost saving and will not squeeze farmers margins.”
However, she added that sourcing from the UK was a problem.
Beef suppliers could only source seven head of organic cattle each week, when 140 are needed to satisfy nationwide demand.
In April the store created a 3 million organic meat conversion scheme to help UK farmers with conversion costs