British produce accounts for 73% of all lamb facings in supermarkets.
According to AHDB Beef & Lamb’s Beef and Lamb Country of Origin Survey, just under three-quarters of all lamb products displayed were British. This is up from 71% in June 2014. Aldi, Budgens, Morrisons and Waitrose all had 100% British lamb facings while Marks & Spencer scored 69%, Asda and Tesco both scored 66% and Lidl had 55% of British facings. Sainsbury’s had 54% with The Co-operative bringing up the rear with just 38% of its lamb facings being British.
Talking at this morning’s Royal Welsh Show, Dai Davies, chairman of Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales, criticised the retailers not stocking enough British lamb. “I urge them to reconsider their sourcing policies and decide whether they really want to sacrifice the long term future of the UK’s supply chain for a short term gain.”
Last week HCC announced plans to improve sales of the lamb industry which included campaigning retailers. “We have been talking to the multiple retailers about their roles, urging them to give greater prominence to Welsh Lamb and we are diverting more money into our annual Welsh Lamb advertising campaign, launching it almost two months earlier than normal,” said Davies.
Asda recently pledged to support the UK’s sheep farming industry by ensuring that most of its lamb will be UK-sourced as of mid-July.
AHDB Beef & Lamb chairman Stuart Roberts welcomed this announcement. “I am writing to Asda to congratulate them on the move to source more home-produced lamb. Moreover, since we have just benchmarked the supermarket – along with all the other multiple retailers – as part of our Lambwatch work to track facings of British lamb, I will be offering to repeat the exercise in six weeks’ time to show how far the retailer has moved forward.
“I think credit should also go to those retailers who consistently score highly in our research in terms of stocking British lamb. Aldi, Budgens, Morrisons and Waitrose were all found to have 100% British in the June survey.
” On the beef side, 89% of facings in the supermarkets in June were British, up from 85% in June 2014. Aldi, Budgens, The Co-operative, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons and Waitrose all had 100% British beef facings. Asda had 71%, Sainsbury’s had 97% and Tesco had 87%.