When is a local product really local in nature? Local AM Alun Pugh pressed for Tesco to stock locally sourced products in November. How’s Rhuthun/Ruthin Tesco doing?
This is an important question. Tesco, as the UK’s largest grocer, has a massive influence on employment particularly in the agricultural sector – both farmers and food processors – and elsewhere. As local Alun Pugh said recently, “these issues were high on the agenda of local residents and farmers”. They still are.
No one in store has as yet been able to say which products specifically come from Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd. The response seems to be that Tesco’s suppliers need to stock all its stores on a global basis. This overwhelming requirement seems to militate against local suppliers.
Tesco in Rhuthun/Ruthin’s making a large splash about its Welsh products. It has a bilingual glossy brochure “Enjoy the Taste of Wales” in which it promises Tesco “goes out of its way to source a wide range of products from local suppliers…”. Throughout its store are shelf labels proclaiming Welsh products and larger ones strung from the ceiling.
Indeed, Tesco is to be congratulated for its range of Welsh products, and for marketing them. The most local we could find, however, was the Denbighshire Free Press newspaper. Published in Dinbych/Denbigh, it’s printed in Yr Wyddgrug/Mold.
Tesco Rhuthun/Ruthin stocks Cadog butter and cheese. Cadog is the Welsh brand of Nantwich-based Dairy Farmers of Britain. While Cadog’s butter is from Caerphilly, its medium Cheddar is from the local Llandyrnog factory (Britain’s fourth largest for cheese). Although Tesco Extra Wrecsam stocks two of the four Llandyrnog cheese lines, Tesco sticks to one at Rhuthun/Ruthin.
Tesco also has a range of Snowdonia speciality cheeses from Llanrwst and sausage from the Welsh Sausage Company (aka Edwards of Conwy). As locals will know, both are outside Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd but they are still relatively local.
Where, however, is the acclaimed Patchwork Food Company of Rhuthun/Ruthin? That would be a real coup, as other supermarkets don’t stock Patchwork products.
Other Welsh products appear to come from the south. Take Brace’s Bread as an example. This is a brand I’d not tasted (let alone heard of) till last week. It’s more than acceptable. But it does come from Crumlin (Casnewydd/Newport).
What of Dinbych/Denbigh’s Henllan Bread? Or The Village Bakery (Minera, Wrecsam)? Or Gerrad’s of Wrecsam? Indeed, what of Blas ar Fwyd, Llanrwst?
It’s difficult to know the exact source of Tesco’s brand Welsh milk. It’s probably processed in Cardiff but some may well be from local cows. Also, the non-Cadog Tesco brand Welsh cheese is likely to extrude from Llandyrnog.
Where’s Llaeth-y-Llan of Llannefydd’s products alongside Rachel’s Dairy?
Likewise, it will be difficult to tell how many of the Welsh Farmhouse Eggs are sourced locally.
So, could Tesco Rhuthun/Ruthin be doing more to help *local* farmers, suppliers and processors? On the one hand, it’s quite possible that producers such as Patchwork or Henllan Bread don’t wish to supply the supermarket trade. On the other, has the campaign (such that it was) for local produce been successful or not? Can Tesco be blamed for choosing non-local large suppliers from whom it can guarantee an uninterrupted inventory? After all, that’s what the public wants – stocked shelves.
This is an important question. Tesco, as the UK’s largest grocer, has a massive influence on employment particularly in the agricultural sector – both farmers and food processors – and elsewhere. As local Alun Pugh said recently, “these issues were high on the agenda of local residents and farmers”. They still are.
No one in store has as yet been able to say which products specifically come from Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd. The response seems to be that Tesco’s suppliers need to stock all its stores on a global basis. This overwhelming requirement seems to militate against local suppliers.
Tesco in Rhuthun/Ruthin’s making a large splash about its Welsh products. It has a bilingual glossy brochure “Enjoy the Taste of Wales” in which it promises Tesco “goes out of its way to source a wide range of products from local suppliers…”. Throughout its store are shelf labels proclaiming Welsh products and larger ones strung from the ceiling.Indeed, Tesco is to be congratulated for its range of Welsh products, and for marketing them. The most local we could find, however, was the Denbighshire Free Press newspaper. Published in Dinbych/Denbigh, it’s printed in Yr Wyddgrug/Mold.
Tesco Rhuthun/Ruthin stocks Cadog butter and cheese. Cadog is the Welsh brand of Nantwich-based Dairy Farmers of Britain. While Cadog’s butter is from Caerphilly, its medium Cheddar is from the local Llandyrnog factory (Britain’s fourth largest for cheese). Although Tesco Extra Wrecsam stocks two of the four Llandyrnog cheese lines, Tesco sticks to one at Rhuthun/Ruthin.Tesco also has a range of Snowdonia speciality cheeses from Llanrwst and sausage from the Welsh Sausage Company (aka Edwards of Conwy). As locals will know, both are outside Dyffryn Clwyd/Vale of Clwyd but they are still relatively local.
Where, however, is the acclaimed Patchwork Food Company of Rhuthun/Ruthin? That would be a real coup, as other supermarkets don’t stock Patchwork products.
Other Welsh products appear to come from the south. Take Brace’s Bread as an example. This is a brand I’d not tasted (let alone heard of) till last week. It’s more than acceptable. But it does come from Crumlin (Casnewydd/Newport).
What of Dinbych/Denbigh’s Henllan Bread? Or The Village Bakery (Minera, Wrecsam)? Or Gerrad’s of Wrecsam? Indeed, what of Blas ar Fwyd, Llanrwst?
It’s difficult to know the exact source of Tesco’s brand Welsh milk. It’s probably processed in Cardiff but some may well be from local cows. Also, the non-Cadog Tesco brand Welsh cheese is likely to extrude from Llandyrnog.
Where’s Llaeth-y-Llan of Llannefydd’s products alongside Rachel’s Dairy?
Likewise, it will be difficult to tell how many of the Welsh Farmhouse Eggs are sourced locally.
So, could Tesco Rhuthun/Ruthin be doing more to help *local* farmers, suppliers and processors? On the one hand, it’s quite possible that producers such as Patchwork or Henllan Bread don’t wish to supply the supermarket trade. On the other, has the campaign (such that it was) for local produce been successful or not? Can Tesco be blamed for choosing non-local large suppliers from whom it can guarantee an uninterrupted inventory? After all, that’s what the public wants – stocked shelves.
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Tesco