Prince’s Carrots Are Axed From Sainsbury’s Stores

By KIRAN RANDHAWA

PRINCE Charles has been dropped by Sainsbury’s as one of the suppliers of its organic vegetable range.

His carrots, grown on his farm at Highgrove, were sold to the supermarket chain until the contract was suddenly ended this year.

The head of the Soil Association, Patrick Holden, was also sacked by Sainsbury’s as a supplier of organic carrots.

The director of the organic food and farming charity says he and Prince Charles have become victims of the supermarket system’s industrial processes.

He said they had been forced to transport their vegetables hundreds of miles from their farms to a centralised packing house in Peterborough before they were sold in Sainsbury’s stores local to their area.

Mr Holden said the quality of the vegetables was damaged by the combined effects of long-distance transport, handling to create large enough batches for machines that wash and polish the vegetables and further storing after processing to create large enough batches for packing.

This process also resulted in a crop acquiring a greater carbon footprint than conventional carrots grown on an industrial scale, Mr Holden said.

“Everyone who has supplied a supermarket own label will have a story similar to mine to tell but most daren’t tell it for fear of being delisted,” said Mr Holden, who was not paid 3,380 after delivering a load of carrots that the supermarket’s quality control system rejected.

“This is not confined to one supermarket.” Mr Holden, who has grown carrots for more than 20 years, had been supplying the vegetable farm Bwlchwernen Fawr in west Wales until the agreement was ended in January.

A spokeswoman for the Prince said Highgrove’s Home Farm “was involved in a short trial with Sainsbury’s to sell organic carrots, which both sides have agreed needs more work”.

Sainsbury’s said in a statement: “We have gone to great lengths to try to accommodate Mr Holden’s preferred way of supplying us with his carrots.

“Our overriding priority is to provide our customers with high- quality produce, and our organic carrots need to be as fresh as possible. We will continue to work to find a solution for him.”

Going in circles

1. Carrots picked on Soil Association farm in Wales

2. They are then trucked to warehouse near Ross-on-Wye

3. Prince Charless carrots also trucked from Tetbury

4. Both loads cleaned, polished and packed

5. Loads taken to Sainsburys distribution centre in Bristol

6. Carrots finally trucked to stores around Wales and West Country

(c) 2007 Evening Standard; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.