Room for more British tomatoes in UK retail

Many of the British tomato growers are finalizing the last preparations for the annual British Tomato Week, which starts on May 22. With less than a week to go, UK market intelligence service ProduceView strolled down to some supermarkets for a last check to see if the retailers are also ready for the #BritishTomatoWeek.

According to the British Tomato Growers Association, four out of five tomatoes in the British retail are imported. 

This is definitely visible on the ProduceView report. Especially in regards to standard TOV's, there is room for improvement: From the seven supermarkets visited by ProduceView this week, three were offering British TOV's; Tesco, Co-op and Marks & Spencer. 

Morrisons had British TOV's on their shelves last week, but they must have been sold out this week. According to ProduceView's report, Lidl and Asda offer Dutch TOV's and Waitrose is still holding on to Spanish tomatoes. 

The prices of the tomatoes in the British supermarkets decreased a little bit this week, probably as a result of the increased supplies, or perhaps as a result of promotions in advance of British Tomato Week. 

Looking at cucumbers, fans of British grown produce had a better week, as UK-grown cukes could be found at Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Co-op, M&S and Waitrose. Morrisons is still offering Dutch cucumbers and the German discounters Aldi and Lidl stick to cucumbers from Spain. 

Hopefully next week there will be more British tomatoes available to celebrate the #BritishTomatoWeek.