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Whilst we recognise the importance of buying locally in all our businesses, not everything can be sourced locally – and customers now expect to be able to buy what they want regardless of season or country of origin.

We have dedicated buying teams in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, whose task it is to seek out and develop relationships with suppliers. In the UK, Tesco stocks over 7,000 local products. All products are labelled with the country of origin and, where appropriate, with national flags.

Tesco remains British agriculture’s biggest customer. During the year we sold more British apples and strawberries than any other supermarket. Our fresh chicken is 97% British, fresh beef is 95% British, fresh pork is 92% British and fresh lamb is 88% British. All our fresh shell eggs and fresh, UHT and organic milk come from British farms.

Buying locally – internationally

We promote local produce in all our stores, not just in the UK. A team of buyers in each country work with local suppliers to tailor our range to local customers. There is a huge range of in-store promotions of local produce throughout our international businesses. For example, our businesses in Poland and Malaysia source the vast majority of their own-brand range nationally. At the same time, our international growth has created new opportunities for many local producers.

In Thailand we help more than 1,700 One Tambon One Product (OTOP) producers to sell their products. Village residents work together to produce one quality product. We now sell 89 such products in our stores across Thailand and encourage OTOP producers to hold exhibitions in our malls and car parks.