Horsemeat scandal: Tesco promises to buy more meat from UK
Its all too easy to knock the big supermarkets. Many Hinterland readers feel they deserve it. I am not going to slide into that well worn groove this week. I do think however that there are often unintended consequences which can arise from the best of intentions. This story points to the drive of Tescos to source more locally in view of the growing distrust of farmers in relation to particularly processed meals. It makes me wonder where the large scale additional British suppliers they are seeking will come from. More interestingly still will it leave prices the same? Will it lead to more local jobs?
Phil Clarke, chief executive of the UK’s biggest supermarket, where last month burgers containing up to 29% horsemeat were found, will tell the National Farmers Union (NFU) conference in Birmingham on Wednesday: “We are already the biggest customer of UK agriculture, with all our beef – fresh, frozen and in ready meals – coming from UK and Ireland farms. But we can do much more.”
By July, all Tesco’s fresh chicken will also come from British farms, with frozen and ready meals to be swapped over in future.
Clarke told Sky News on Wednesday morning: “We feel the need to bring the food closer to home. We think it’s right to bring more of it back to the UK, so long as we can get the demand from the UK.”
He insisted the impact on sales at the supermarket had been “minimal” but did admit that some customers were buying fewer frozen ready meals.
Clarke’s promise to tighten up Tesco’s supply chain shows growing concern among supermarkets about shoppers’ loss of confidence in their processed food. Figures from Kantar Worldpanel out on Tuesday suggested that sales of frozen burgers in the UK had plunged 43% and frozen ready meals 13% since the emergence of the horsemeat scandal.