Sainsbury’s has struck two 10-year supply agreements with Evesham Vale Growers and Thanet Earth that it says will expand the availability of British-grown tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers while making its fresh produce supply chain less vulnerable to weather disruption.
The supermarket said the arrangements were designed to back domestic production at a time when extreme weather has repeatedly affected harvests and tightened supplies. They also mark a significant shift in cucu...
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mber sourcing: for the first time, Sainsbury’s will sell British-grown cucumbers throughout the winter, with the retailer aiming to lift the volume of whole British cucumbers on its shelves by as much as 60 per cent this winter.
That crop will be grown at Thanet Earth in Kent, the UK’s largest single-site glasshouse complex, where lighting, heat and carbon dioxide are carefully controlled to keep plants productive through the darker months. The company said the move would allow it to maintain year-round supply of a category that has proved especially exposed to climate shocks.
Hannah O’Reilly, category director of produce at Sainsbury’s, said the retailer needed to adapt to changing weather patterns and invest in new approaches to ensure customers could still buy the produce they want all year. She said backing more British production and helping suppliers innovate would strengthen resilience in a supply chain that has already been hit by weather-related disruption in recent years.
Rob James, technical director at Thanet Earth, said the partnership gave the business greater certainty and would help it push forward with British growing.
The agreements also support Sainsbury’s tomato range, where demand remains strong. The retailer said its Taste the Difference tomatoes generated more than £120 million in sales last year and made up over 65 per cent of its total tomato sales. Paul Faulkner, director at Evesham Vale Growers, said the longer-term contract would give the farm confidence to invest, expand British tomato volumes on Sainsbury’s shelves and extend availability for shoppers.
The deals are among the longest in the sector and sit within Sainsbury’s wider pledge to commit £5 billion to long-term agreements with more than 2,400 British and Irish farms.
Source: Noah Wire Services
