Topfruit marketer Avalon Produce will supply 750 tonnes of apples a year to Northern Irish prepared firm Simply Fruit under a Tesco sustainability initiative to utilise more crop.
The retailer, which unveiled a similar scheme last week linking potato supplier Branston with processor Samworths, will now be able to buy “98 per cent of the bin”, according to Avalon chief commercial officer, Michael Joyles.
Apples sent to Simply Fruit will be packaged as part of the company’s snack packs of mixes such as apple and grapes, which it supplies as part of its prepared fruit contract with Tesco. The fruit is Class I quality but does not meet retail pre-pack sizing specifications.
“Tesco is streets ahead of the market when it comes to this kind of thing,” said Joyles. “They can now take a full range of sizes. It’s great, it takes time out of the day so we can focus more on marketing collaboratively.”
Tesco is now planning to bring its apple juice suppliers into the circle, according to Joyles, which will eventually allow them to buy 100 per cent of a crop.
The initiative was born out of Tesco’s ‘sustainability group’, he continued, which encourages collaboration between suppliers to tackle issues such as waste, and create cost efficiencies.
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