Asda has quietly moved away from its commitment to source only British fresh chicken lines, and is now selling chicken reared in Germany and slaughtered in the Netherlands.
The retailer recently began selling 1kg packs of chicken breast fillet portions under its Just Essentials value tier, sourced from the Continent via its supplier 2 Sisters Food Group’s European operation. That 2 Sisters Storteboom business was sold off to owner Ranjit Singh Boparan’s private office last September as part of a move to turn around its fortunes.
At £6.19/kg, the Just Essentials chicken is some 4.6% cheaper per kg than a similar, British-sourced Tesco chicken breast fillet line, priced at £6.49/kg. It appears to be only available in-store, with no listing on the Asda website.
Asda’s move marks the first change in the convention of sourcing 100% British fresh chicken lines by the major mults in up to two decades, according to industry insiders.
The retailer removed a statement on its website claiming all its own label fresh chicken was 100% British after being approached by The Grocer this week.
An Asda spokesman cited “current supply challenges” in the poultry market as the key driver in what it described as a “temporary” decision to source the Just Essentials line “from EU and UK farms”.
“We continue to source all our other fresh primal chicken from UK Red Tractor Assured farms,” he added, with the retailer now sourcing 98% of its fresh primal chicken from the UK.
Read more: How British are the supermarkets and what’s behind their marketing claims?
The supermarket also pointed to the need to “ensure customers can continue to find the essential products they need at the prices they expect when they shop with us”.
The switch coincides with a significant tightening in supply across the broiler sector over the past year.
One senior industry source told The Grocer “there isn’t enough chicken to go round”.
Slaughterings were up 2.6% in the year to May 2024, according to Defra’s most recent dataset. But as retailers have moved to lower stocking densities and avian flu takes its toll, those levels will have fallen in recent months, suggested British Poultry Council CEO Richard Griffiths. Meanwhile, consumer demand remains strong, he said.
Asda is yet to follow many retailers in cutting stocking densities by 20% to 30kg/m2. “But it will still be feeling that knock-on effect of tighter supply felt throughout the poultrymeat sector,” Griffiths said.
“This is the biggest welfare-focused change in the past thirty years, and it doesn’t take much to put a squeeze on supply.”
Processors had already “done the easy bits” to use any available spare space, he added.
“The top issue of urgency is [the loosening of] planning [restrictions] so they can build more space.”
Responding to Asda’s change in sourcing policy, NFU poultry board chair James Mottershead said the move was “disappointing”.
Our understanding is that this is a temporary issue and we have been assured by Asda that they remain committed to sourcing 100% British fresh chicken,” he added.
“This is something we will continue to monitor; it is important that retailers stand by their commitments in order to promote confidence within the British poultry sector.”
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