Tesco turns to butchers in Wales

- Published: 26 July, 2007

Tesco has given a boost to the Welsh food industry this week with the announcement that all bacon and sausage sold on its counters in Wales will be sourced from Wales.

New products available will include DeriMon bacon, Langfords Welsh Dragon Sausage and Edwards of Conwy gold award winning sausages, the retailer announced during the Royal Welsh Show.

Tesco head of local sourcing Emily Shamma said, "We recently held a producer road show in Carmarthen to meet more Welsh suppliers. The quality of bacon and sausage we saw was so good we decided to deal exclusively with Welsh suppliers for these products.

"Customers are increasingly interested in the provenance of their food and we're very pleased that we're able to increase the amount of Welsh produce available.

"Sausage and bacon on the counters will be clearly labelled so that customers can be confident they are supporting suppliers from their country - and we will provide in store marketing events to encourage shoppers to try the new range.

Andrew Profit, sales manager with Edwards of Conwy, speaking at the Royal Welsh Show said the scheme was part of a 12 week trial which could lead to a longer deal for the butcher. "We're supplying the north Wales stores, while others supply the south, but after the 12 week period the intention is to go down to one supplier for it all."

The butcher will be supplying eight new lines to Tesco, including pork and cracked black pepper and pork and leek sausages, into 17 stores initially.