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Nature’s Choice

To ensure our fruit, vegetables and salad are grown to high safety, quality and environmental standards, we ask our suppliers to complywith our Nature’s Choice scheme. This is our own integrated farm management scheme and is unique to Tesco. Introduced in 1992, it sets environmental standards and it specifies shape, size, taste, variety and shelf life requirements.

Nature’s Choice environmental standards

• rational use of plant protection products, fertilisers and manures;
• pollution prevention;
• protection of human health;
• use of energy, water and other natural resources;
• recycling and re-use of material;
• wildlife and landscape conservation and enhancement.

Farms must have a plan for managing the environment, detailing action to protect and encourage wildlife diversity, including planting hedgerows and creating wildlife corridors. Pollution control and energy use are also important parts of the scheme, with specific controls on discharges to local watercourses, and energy use reviews by independent third parties. The Nature’s Choice scheme is governed by a committee made up of suppliers, an independent academic, an auditor and Tesco managers.

The scheme applies to all fruit, vegetable and salad suppliers to our UK market. Over 6,000 farms in 41 countries are currently working towards the scheme’s requirements. Nature’s Choice requires suppliers and growers to undergo regular audits, and Tesco requires a third-party audit to apply independent verification of the Nature’s Choice standards.

We have achieved our target of 80% of all suppliers to the UK complying with the scheme by April 2005 and we are aiming for 100% of suppliers to comply by 2006/07.

In Brazil, Nature’s Choice has led to one of the biggest papaya farms in the world establishing set aside areas totalling 25% of the farm hectarage, managing waterways and wetland areas, and conserving tropical forests.

This year we have been working with primary produce suppliers and independent agricultural experts to review the use of pesticides, taking into account best agricultural practices. As a result of examining more than 6,000 pesticide uses on 80 crops, we have stopped the use of 190 and put in place extra controls on another 570. This has involved working with suppliers outside the EU to bring their standards into line with EU requirements, thus helping minimise the risk of residues on imported products to the UK.

Our international operations also encourage good environmental practice from our fresh produce suppliers. For example, Tesco Kipa in Turkey is the first retailer in the country to pioneer EUREPGAP (the Euro Retailer Producer Group’s Good Agricultural Practices) standards. Currently seven different products are certified to EUREPGAP, and eight further fruit and vegetables will be certified over the coming year.

Wildlife Choice

For the past two years we have been working to strengthen the biodiversity and landscape requirements of Nature’s Choice. Now called Wildlife Choice, this separate scheme requires farmers to be fully aware of the wildlife potential on their farms, to agree an independent improvement plan with quantified targets, and then to monitor the impact of the changes to farmland habitats. Initial surveys and environmental record searches are conducted by the Game Conservancy Trust and independent ecologists.

To date, seven farms are participating in this project, and are providing practical evidence of quantified benefits to wildlife. Three winter and summer counts have now taken place by independent ornithologists. A Wildlife Choice website containing each farm’s action plan and progress to date will be launched in mid-2005. Our aim is to build a national, regional and county database of how Tesco growers are making a difference in the sustainability of their farms.

Organic food

Customers buy more organic food from Tesco than from any other retailer.

Our organic sales have grown by 22% over the past year. We sell more than 1,200 organic products lines, including 33 million bananas, 48 million eggs, 541,000 mince pies and 30,000 litres of vodka.

This year our sponsorship of Newcastle University’s Centre for Organic Agriculture came to an end, through mutual agreement, due to difficulties in delivering suitable research. We are hiring a full-time Organic Technical Manager and holding a conference for our organic suppliers in mid-2005. We will ask our organic suppliers for practical suggestions on how Tesco can help them build their businesses. We will then look to fund any suitable research or initiatives that arise from this consultation.

Animal welfare

We demand high standards of animal welfare. We have livestock codes of practice which cover all aspects of animal husbandry for each species. These codes were updated in 2004, and cover animal welfare requirements, environmental impact and food safety factors. The codes ensure compliance with legal requirements and Government welfare recommendations, and are used to ensure overseas suppliers to UK stores have UK-equivalent standards. All Tesco’s suppliers of meat and farmed fish in the UK must be members of an independently audited and certified farm assurance scheme.

We support UK industry initiatives such as the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) ‘Red Tractor’ logo and national farm assurance schemes. This year we extended the Red Tractor logo to our own-brand cheese.

We are committed to achieving an integrated supply base to allow, wherever possible, wholelife traceability. We ensure that our standards are met by using both an internal team of agricultural experts and independent auditors to carry out inspections. We also employ a consultant vet with a certificate in animal welfare to ensure that we are abreast of current issues.

Over the past five years we have committed more than £1 million to support research and initiatives in this area. For example, every year we sponsor Oxford University’s Food and Animal Initiative (FAI) with financial support of £100,000. This initiative aims to research and develop sustainable farm systems that provide discernible benefits to animal welfare, the environment and human health, within a commercial framework, and to share knowledge with farmers and the public. More information can be found at www.faifarms.co.uk

This year we also sponsored a Compassion in World Farming conference.

Animal testing

Tesco brand non-food products are not tested on animals by us or our suppliers, nor on our behalf. As a five-star donor, Tesco contributes £10,000 a year to the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experimentation (FRAME), which seeks to end animal testing.

Seafood

Tesco is committed to the principles of sustainability in our fish sourcing. We understand this is a concern for our customers and external stakeholders.

We support the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which was set up by the World Wildlife Fund in 1997 to investigate ways to conserve fish stocks effectively. The MSC certifies fisheries which are well-managed and sustainable. We sell MSC-labelled wild Alaskan salmon, mackerel and MSC-certified cockles, hake, hoki and Thames herring.

Of the 36 ‘at risk’ species currently identified by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), we do not source 32. For the four remaining species on the MCS list our sourcing policy is developed on a case by case basis to minimise the impact on the environment and promote sustainability of these species. For example, line fishing is specified in preference to trawling for cod and haddock.

Genetically Modified foods

Our policy on Genetically Modified (GM) foods is driven by the view of our customers. They continue to tell us that they are not yet convinced of the benefits of GM. We do not therefore have any own-brand GM foods on our shelves.

Use of GM feed is prohibited in organic products, which means that all of our organic meats are fed on non-GM feed.

The farming community have told us that to extend the range of meat we sell from animals fed on non-GM would put immense pressure on them. We will keep an open mind as the technology develops, listening and responding to our customers.

We remain committed to clear labelling to enable customers to make an informed choice. All branded products containing GM ingredients are labelled as such.

Palm oil

Palm oil is an ingredient in a wide range of food and non-food products including soap, cosmetics, confectionary, ice cream, snack products and margarine. The Palm Oil Sustainability Group is investigating concerns relating to palm oil conservation and is helping to define what is sustainable. We are monitoring the work of this group and will actively engage at an appropriate stage in their work. We have recently initiated further discussions amongst retailers through the British Retail Consortium to explore the role of retailers and future opportunities for collective action at a UK and EU level where it is needed.

Timber

Tesco is committed to purchasing timber and timber products only from legal, sustainable sources. We will never knowingly purchase timber from illegal sources. All suppliers of timber products are asked what species of wood they use and where it comes from. Every six months an external consultant collates supplier information and conducts a risk assessment to determine which need auditing and further checks. All our paperwork relating to timber products is audited by a third party.