Hot on the heels of being awarded Children In Need's top supporter of 2002 on Tuesday, Asda is highlighting its loyalty to its UK grower base.

The Wal-Mart owned supermarket is committed to buying UK-grown produce wherever possible, and says 90 per cent of all fresh food it sells is from the UK.

Asda's head of agriculture, Dr Chris Brown, told the Journal: 'We are huge customers for British farmers, and we want to see British farmers meet the needs of our customers. We want to be recognised as Britain's best retail partner for long-term growth.' Fenmarc supplies Asda with more than 4,000 tonnes of fresh vegetables each week and seven years ago piloted its Cost Plus scheme which ensured growers were guaranteed a minimum return per acre.

At the time this was a unique scheme and Fenmarc managing director Mark Harrod (pictured) told freshinfo that he still believes it is unique. 'Our growers are rewarded through performance,' he said.

Having worked with Asda since the 1980s Fenmarc has seen a lot of developments in the produce industry. Harrod explained: 'The produce sector was somewhat behind many other industries as there was no confidence to invest. But last year we got our first robots and camera grading which we could not have done previously. We need to create change and have a dynamic relationship with our growers.

'We've gone from a business where it was difficult to recruit good calibre people to one where we can now attract a high calibre of staff – recently we've recruited people from Mars and Deloitte & Touche. This would also not have been possible a few years ago.' On Fenmarc's relationship with its growers, Harrod alluded: 'We've learnt a lot while we've grown our relationship with Asda. We do give our growers long-term commitment and have a day coming up in March when growers can come to a forum and air their views.

'We recognise that if our growers can't survive then we can't get the produce to the customers.' As an example of the value offered to fresh produce customers at Asda, Harrod concluded by pointing out that when the store rolled back the price of its diced carrot and swede, sales shot up by 60 per cent and have stayed there.

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