Tesco’s British Pledge

Following on from Tesco’s pledge to British farmers back in February, Kevin Grace, Tesco’s commercial and supply chain manager, has told the NFU that the retailer was on course to source all its fresh chickens from UK farms by July.  He also made a commitment to ‘offer contracts with a minimum period of two years to all our farmers and suppliers who want them’.  The details of these long-term deals would be published over the summer.  Mr Grace also reported that the model of farmer supplier groups seen in the liquid milk market would be rolled-out to pigs, ‘finest lamb’ and ‘finest beef’.  He also stated that Tesco is committed to sourcing more British beef, however the NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe demanded more ‘tangible commitments’ on beef and lamb sourcing.