Farmers report '˜fake' Tesco farm branding to watchdog

National Farmers’ Union (NFU) officials said the practice was “completely unacceptable” as the union announced this morning that it had put a complaint in writing following concerns raised by its members.

It follows recent controversy when Tesco introduced brand names such as ‘Woodside Farms’ and ‘Boswell Farms’ which refer to fictional farms.

Exactly where are these idyllic-sounding farms? Nowhere - Tesco made them up

Such practices could mislead consumers as to the product’s provenance, the NFU claim.

At least three in five respondents to a YouGov survey of 1,796 adults, commissioned by the union in June, said they thought these farm products were ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ British and that they would feel misled if this was not the case.

NFU president Meurig Raymond said: “The NFU’s legal team has looked at this carefully and as a result we are asking the National Trading Standards Institute to look at whether ‘fake’ farm branding complies with the relevant legal requirements.”

He said he had spoken to senior management at Tesco to highlight members’ concerns and that he hoped all retailers would take a considered approach to product branding, something he praised discount retailer Aldi for taking a lead on.

Aldi has made a commitment to only source British product in their fictional farm brands by the end of March 2017.

“I urge all retailers to consider seriously the results of our survey which show that mixing imported product with British product under the same fictional farm name can be misleading to many of their customers,” said Mr Raymond, who farms in Pembrokeshire.

“British farming is proud of its high standards and the NFU would be delighted to work with retailers to ensure that customers are given clear and unambiguous information about where their food comes from.”

NFU Cymru president Stephen James, speaking at the start of this year’s Royal Welsh Show, said: “These fake farm brands are completely unacceptable and we believe are misleading consumers. This practice has been going on across the retail sector for a long time and enough is enough.

“In particular, NFU members feel the brands confuse shoppers about the country of origin of the food products in question. Country of origin labelling is important because we know from consumer surveys that shoppers want to buy British food products; clearly, consumers cannot exercise that choice without clear country of origin labelling.

“That’s why we have now written to Trading Standards to argue our point and to ask for clear guidelines for retailers on the clarity of country of origin labelling.”