Anger as facings of British lamb plummet at Tesco

Tesco is being accused of “saying one thing and doing another” as new figures show its facings of British lamb are down 15% compared with last year. 

AHDB Beef and Lamb’s regular “beef and lamb watch”, which surveys a sample of stores, found that Tesco’s facings of home-grown lamb slipped from 73% in August 2014 to 58% in August this year.

This made it the only one of the ‘Big Four’ supermarkets (which include Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury’s) to drop its facings of British lamb. However, it did improve its August facings of British beef by 9% to 93%.

See also: Fury as Tesco found selling imported lamb under Scottish banner

In contrast, Morrisons maintained its 100% British lamb facings, while Sainsbury’s improved its by 11% to 98% and Asda’s home-grown facings nudged up to 74%.

Nearly three years ago, Tesco’s then CEO Philip Clarke, made a number of pledges to British farmers, including that the retailer would source more meat closer to home. 

Tesco must explain, says NFU

The NFU’s livestock board chairman, Charles Sercombe, said Tesco “appeared to be bottom of the pile” for British lamb facings. 

He said: “In June, NFU President Meurig Raymond tabled a question at Tesco’s AGM and urged the retailer to demonstrate exactly how it is delivering on its promises and commitments made at NFU Conference in 2013 and to give firm evidence that progress is being made.

“They then confirmed that the promises to source more meat closer to home – which they made nearly three years ago – still stood. Just days ago the UK farming unions met with Tesco to discuss the challenges facing British agriculture. 

“But now, we get these figures from AHDB which seem to indicate that Tesco is saying one thing but doing another.

“Using facings as a key indicator, Tesco support for domestic lamb is not just below average, but it appears to be bottom of the pile.

“We are challenging Tesco to explain how this reduction in the percentage of British lamb sold is compatible with its open public commitments to source more meat closer to home. British farmers are once again asking, why in the peak British lamb season are Tesco not backing British?

Asda lags behind in beef facings

Asda was lagging behind in beef facings, according to AHDB’s data, managing to display 78% British produce, while the levy board reported 100% British facings for every over supermarket, apart from Tesco and Sainsbury’s, which scored 93% and 98% respectively.  

Retailers improve support for British overall

“On the plus side, the AHDB report highlights those retailers who are consistently supporting British farming such as Waitrose, Budgens, Aldi and Morrisons, who all have 100% British lamb facings. Meanwhile, The Co-operative, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Lidl are showing signs of improvement but could still do better.”

Across all the supermarkets surveyed, facings of British lamb on shelves nudged up 2% to 85% in August compared to the same month in 2014.

In beef, facings of British produce broke the 90% barrier for the first time, hitting 92% in August.