Tesco Not Doing Enough To Support British Beef, Say NFU

Britain's largest supermarket chain Tesco came in for some criticism this week from the National Far…

Britain's largest supermarket chain Tesco came in for some criticism this week from the National Farmer's Union over the amount of home-produced beef it bought last year.

Tesco bout almost 8% less British beef in November 2013 then it did a year earlier, according to a report published by the NFU. The report was particularly critical of the fact that at the same time, Tesco took out a full page print advert toward the end of 2012 saying: :We know that the more we work with British farmers the better."

In a document entitled "Retailer Report cards 2014", which was released at NFU's AGM this week, the union highlighted seven areas where it thinks the retail giant could improve its sport for British beef. The report looked at all of Britain's supermarket chains, but comparatively, only two areas of improvement were suggested for Morrisons and the Co-op, with five for Asda and four for Sainsbury's.

"Tesco's public commitments to source more of its food closer to home do raise expectations that a concerted effort is being made to increase the amount of British produce sourced," the report said.

However, Tesco said it did not recognise the 8% fall in its purchase of British beef highlighted by the NFU and that all its beef was sourced in either the UK or Ireland, which customers did not differentiate between.

The supermarket added that, as a result of sourcing all its fresh chicken in the UK, it now bought 20,000 tonnes more British chicken a year.