British apples and pears hit supermarket shelves
25th October 2024
September saw good volumes of new season British apples available, but not all UK supermarkets were quick to stock their shelves, British Apples & Pears Limited has reported.
Aldi and Lidl both hit the ground running with strong September performances for British apples sold by BAPL growers.
One in four British apples sold in September were to Aldi (27.5%). Lidl also started very well, as they took 20.7% (1,401 tonnes) of all British apples in the month. This compares very favourably with their grocery market shares of 9.8% (Aldi) and 8.1% (Lidl).
BAPL executive chair Ali Capper said: “Aldi really was the standout performer. The supermarket more than quadrupled their volume compared to September 2023, from 405 tonnes in September last year to 1,862 tonnes in September 2024.”
Shoppers looking for British apples
Tesco had a surprisingly slow start to the new British apple season. The retailer was ranked fourth in the September 2024 league table, taking just 13.9% (938 tonnes) of British apples and just under half their grocery market share of 28%.
Sainsbury’s also had a slow start, selling 14% (949 tonnes) of the new season crop, compared to their grocery market share of 15.2%. Asda is also worthy of a mention, as they sold 7.9% (531 tonnes) of the September British apple volume, which is a huge improvement on their September 2023 volume of just 86 tonnes, BAPL said.
Ms Capper continued: “It’s early days, but we know from our social media channels that shoppers get very frustrated when they are looking for new season British apples in the supermarkets and can’t find them.
“That’s why we really need all the supermarkets to be quick off the mark at the start of the new season.”
British pears
Lidl and Aldi also had very strong performance for British pear sales in September 2024. Lidl took 29.1% (239 tonnes) of all British pears sold to UK supermarkets by BAPL growers, and Aldi took 25.7% (211 tonnes).
However, both supermarkets were pipped to the British pear September top spot by Sainsbury’s. In September 2024, Sainsbury’s took almost a third (32.4%) of all British pears sold by BAPL growers. Read the full report here.
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