Red meat price must  remain competitive – Morrisons

Morrisons, the UK’s fourth biggest food retailer, has sourced 100 per cent British on all its own-brand meat for more than four years, but the company’s agriculture manager Andrew Loftus said it has to remain competitive on price for shoppers to choose it.

Mr Loftus told producers and processors at the Eblex conference that while the retailer was doing ‘all it can’ to help, the food sector was in a period of uncertainty.

Sustainable

“We want to keep British products on our shelves, but they must be competitive, affordable, profitable and sustainable,” he said.

Keen to maintain their social status, shoppers are trading down or switching brands to save money, Mr Loftus said.

“People are shopping at Aldi so they can keep their Audi,” he said.

He added there was positive news from IGD figures, which show in the past three years the amount of people looking to buy British has increased by nearly one-quarter.