Discounter honoured by trade for selling the most British apples in the past year
Aldi has been named 2023 Apple Retailer of the Year by trade association British Apples & Pears (BAPL).
The award is based on BAPL member sales to British supermarkets from September 2022 to the end of August 2023, during which the discounter sold 32,165 tonnes of British dessert apples, ahead of Tesco’s 28,954t and Sainsbury’s 24,448t.
BAPL executive chair Ali Capper said: “Aldi’s commitment to British has been growing every year. With a grocery market share of only 10.2 per cent, we are delighted to see Aldi significantly overindexing for British apples.
”Aldi sold 23 per cent of all British apples last year – the greatest volume of any UK supermarket, just pipping Tesco’s 21 per cent. For Aldi to sell more than double the expected volume, based on grocery market share, is an excellent performance and one which we hope other retailers will emulate.”
Long-term support
BAPL also analysed performance over the last three years to identify longer-term support for the category. In terms of all apple and pear sales covering the 2019 to 2022 crops, Sainsbury’s sold the most (117,892t), with Tesco second (116,869t) and Aldi in third (111,373t).
“It’s so important all our supermarkets get behind British farmers and our wonderful British apples and pears,” Capper added. ”Buying British over imported fruit saves on food miles, and we know consumers want British if at all possible. When we have such wonderful fruit available in good quantities, that will store well, there really is no reason to look overseas. It would be great to see every retailer making it much easier for the shopper to find British apples and pears in their stores and online.”
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