– All of Tesco’s nearly 500 UK fruit and veg growers are now LEAF Marque certified, as roll-out advances environmental performance across its entire UK supply base.

– Entire global fresh produce supply chain to move to LEAF Marque certification by 2025.

WEBWIRE – Friday, February 24, 2023

Tesco has announced the completion of its landmark roll-out of LEAF Marque certification, with all of its UK fruit and veg growers now certified to robust environmental standards, working towards whole-farm, continuous improvement in areas including climate resilience, biodiversity, soil health, greenhouse gas emissions, and deforestation.

LEAF Marque encourages growers to continuously improve upon key sustainability metrics on their farm. By benchmarking growers’ progress against practices related to nature, climate, society, and economy, the LEAF Marque Standard identifies target areas and helps producers drive further improvements.

Tesco has now started the process of certifying the rest of its 8,000-strong global grower base, with the aim of completing the transition by 2025.

LEAF Marque, run by global farming organisation LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), requires farms to take a whole business approach to delivering more sustainable, climate positive farming.

Tesco’s long-standing onion supplier, Stourgarden, which is based in the Stour Valley on the Essex-Suffolk border has been LEAF Marque certified for the last ten years. During this time, the results of the business’ efforts to boost biodiversity are having a positive effect. By putting some fields down to permanent pasture it has led to an increase in barn owls nesting locally and hunting the grasslands for field mice, shrews and voles.

Ashwin Prasad, Chief Product Officer at Tesco said: “We’re excited to have completed the roll-out of LEAF Marque certification across all our UK grown fruit and veg supply base. Reaching this significant milestone was only possible by working in partnership with our suppliers and growers, and it’s really encouraging to see environmental improvements already having an impact on farms across the UK.”

“As we continue our roll out of the LEAF Marque across our international supply chain, we’re calling on the whole of the food industry to join us in implementing consistent, improved environmental standards to ensure the food we eat is produced sustainably around the world.”

Tesco’s partnership with LEAF represents a significant element of its approach to restoring nature in food production.

In partnership with WWF, the retailer has committed to halving the environmental impact of the average shopping basket, and the requirements of LEAF Marque certification are expected to accelerate progress towards that goal by strengthening environmental farming practices within growing regions around the world.

George Rix, Managing Director at Stourgarden, a third-generation family farming business, said: “Protecting and enhancing biodiversity on the farms we work with has always been central to our approach at Stourgarden – and the use of LEAF has helped us continuously improve how we look after things like soil and water use. Through the documenting of activities and putting targets in place, LEAF has also led to a marked increase in the amount and variety of wildlife on our farms over the last ten years. It’s really encouraging to see species such as brown hares returning to the land.”

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