Tesco has been awarded the Stone Fruit Retailer of the Year for the 2019/20 season due to their strong performance and support for South African produce.
South African growers association, HORTGRO presents the prize annually to retailers that deliver exceptional results and collaboration during the campaign to promote stone fruit from the Southern Hemisphere.
Tesco saw a noticeable increase in sales this season, with over 3 million kilos of South African stone fruit being sold across its stores, with nectarines doing particularly well.
The retailer ran activities such as online promotions, competitions in their staff magazine ‘T’ and Head Office sampling, which featured South African Supersweet nectarines and peaches, and the ever-popular Flavorking plums.
Oliver Bruton, Assistant Buyer of fresh produce at Tesco said: “Stone fruit is popular with our customers and we continuously strive to offer high quality produce. South Africa is our biggest sourcing region in the Southern Hemisphere and is an important country in helping us to deliver this.
Within our stone fruit range nectarines and peaches remain consistently popular, with Supersweet Plums also performing well.
South Africa is a strong growing region. We work closely with suppliers in the region to plan effectively and in the face of some challenges it is still able to deliver quality produce. Whether it’s through our own-label Suntrail range or our premium Tesco Supersweet brand, we aim to provide a strong range of stone fruit to suit all budgets.”
For more information:
www.beautifulcountrybeautifulfruit.co.uk