Asda's fresh produce supply arm International Procurement and Logistics (IPL) is helping the retailer shift from a model where pineapples are supplied to Asda through third party vendors, to one where 30 per cent of pineapples going to Asda stores comes via IPL.
The first shipment of pineapples - from IPL's new direct supplier Chestnut Hill Farms - came into the business in March.
IPL said that its current plan is to supply two loads per week through its Normanton base, with the balance of the volume coming from its third-party supplier, Chiquita.
An IPL spokesperson said: 'This relationship has been forged with the Wal-Mart GFS (Global Food Sourcing) team in Costa Rica, Luis Araya and the UK team. This is a great example of where we jointly source with GFS to take as much of the suppliers crop as possible. GFS can take larger size pineapples for the US market, and we take the smaller sizes. By taking more of the growers' crop, we can lower the price of the product for Asda customers.
'Whilst these are early steps in the plan to bring pineapples in house, so far they are all going in the right direction. The more pineapples that we take directly through Normanton will mean them being available at a lower price more of the time.'
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