SUPERMARKET chain Asda has struck a deal to ensure the availability of locally-grown potatoes at its stores across East Anglia. Building on the success of a similar initiative to offer Welsh-grown potatoes at its branches in the principality, Asda has joined forces with Fenmarc Produce which packs and prepares potatoes and other vegetables from growers from across the eastern counties.

SUPERMARKET chain Asda has struck a deal to ensure the availability of locally-grown potatoes at its stores across East Anglia.

Building on the success of a similar initiative to offer Welsh-grown potatoes at its branches in the principality, Asda has joined forces with Fenmarc Produce which packs and prepares potatoes and other vegetables from growers from across the eastern counties.

Under the partnership, Asda has now launched a 1.5kg pack of “East Anglian New Potatoes” into its stores around the region.

Among the growers supplying potatoes to Fenmarc for the branded regional packs is A W Mayhew Farms of Home Farm, Woolverstone, near Ipswich, which is managed by brothers Philip, Chris and Geoff Mayhew.

“As an East Anglian grower it is great to see our potatoes in the local stores so that the customer knows that they have not been transported for miles,” said Philip Mayhew. “Many customers will have walked past the fields on the picturesque footpaths of the Shotley and Felixstowe peninsulas.”

Asda potato buyer Drew Kirk added: “The East Anglian branding offers local product for the Asda customer.

“We believe that we have the right grower base in place which is ideally situated to service the needs of the customer, with the right quality, at the right price. Local selling will streamline the food chain, remove increasingly unpopular food miles and speed up the process from field to plate.”