A survey of the major multiples published by Friends of the Earth on November 16 has found that most UK supermarkets have been sourcing most of their top fruit abroad over the past few weeks despite a bumper English apple crop.

Waitrose was the only exception to the rule in the survey, which was carried out in 130 stores in late October and early November. Some 71 per cent of the John Lewis Partnership store's apple and pear lines were UK-produced.

The message is the same one being broadcast by growers, although different methods for calculating shelf space allocation have been used. 'This reconfirms the findings of our own retail surveillance,' said Adrian Barlow of promotional body English Apples & Pears. 'SClearly there's a problem in translating the good intentions at retailers' head office level into actions at store level in too many stores.' English Apples & Pears and the two biggest English top fruit suppliers, Worldwide Fruit and Orchard World, wrote a letter to the major multiples the same day the FoE report was released. 'It is not fair to criticise the multiples for running a business, but it is fair to go to them and ask for something that is mutually productive,' Alasdair Robertson, md of Worldwide Fruit told freshinfo.com. 'Consumers have a desire to purchase English fruit and this industry has a need, so we need to sit down with the retailers and find what it is that we can do to meet that need and that desire.' Tesco and Safeway were bottom of the FoE league table. The pressure group's survey found that only 25 per cent of Safeway's apples and pears were from the UK compared to 31 per cent of Tesco's. Somerfield came in second behind Waitrose with 43 per cent as did Asda. Sainsbury's was fourth with 38 per cent and M&S and the Co-op notched up 33 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.

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