Outgoing Sainsbury's chief executive Justin King has made extremely critical comments about the Red Tractor scheme, which is a UK not-for-profit farm to pack assurance.
While addressing the National Farmers Union conference yesterday, King was asked by one NFU delegate why Sainsbury's refuse to use the Red Tractor logo on own-label ranges.
In response, King said the Red Tractor scheme has thus far set "a low bar for entry" while the assurance logo itself does not add any value for the shoppers.
"Because it doesn't differentiate us. Why should we lend credibility to a label pretty much anyone can put on packaging?" he said.
Elaborating, King told trade magazine the Grocer, "our starting point is that anything on packs should add value", highlighting that space on packaging is valuable.
Sainsbury's stance on the Red Tractor scheme has been a contentious one with UK farmers for many years now.
In other areas, however there was praise for Sainsbury’s which pioneered farmer development groups in 2007 with the creation of a 320-strong dairy development group which had helped boost liquid milk sales by 38%.
All Sainsbury’s mik, eggs and chicken are sourced in the UK and Mr King said the supermarket’s cost of production model ensured that the cost of milk production to diary farmers was always reflected in the price they were paid for their milk.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
To sign up to ESM’s weekly e-zine newsletter, send an email with the subject: ‘Subscribe ESM news’ to [email protected]
