Britain’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has praised Aldi for being the only supermarket chain in the UK to only sell British lamb, urging other grocers to sell more UK-produced lamb, as well as to place orders for it in ample time so that rearing procedures can be properly initiated before the Easter period.
Aldi sells a kilogramme of UK-produced lamb at £3.79. Though most supermarket chains in the UK sell domestically produced lamb, they all import New Zealand and elsewhere to meet demand at Easter and other peak times.
The livestock advisor to the NFU, Tom Fullick, told the TheGuardian.com that the body welcomes "this move by Aldi and we hope it will encourage other retailers to follow suit."
"Our peak lambing season is March to May, but we can produce lambs earlier provided we get sufficient notice. If the supermarkets want it, we can produce it, but it’s a lengthy planning cycle, and a consistent frustration for farmers is that [UK-produced] labelling on sourcing is not clear enough for consumers."
He went on to say that lamb "is a dish for all year round [and not just Easter]. Lamb gave turkey a run for its money in the run-up to the Christmas period and it actually outperformed turkey in value sales."
Aldi UK’s joint managing director of corporate buying, Tony Baines, said, "At Aldi, we pride ourselves on offering customers the best of British all year round. Our British Easter lamb proposition underpins our long term commitment to British farming and reinforces the fact that we will not be beaten on price."
According to Kantar, Aldi has a 5.1 per cent volume share of lamb among British retailers, and its sales of lamb grew by 36.5 per cent over the three months finishing at the end of February.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here
