Tesco is extending its scheme to supply locally produced strawberries to stores across England.

Last year Tesco carried out a trial in Kent in which strawberries produced in the county were stocked in its Kentish stores.

The scheme will now be rolled out to nine further areas this summer - Hereford and Worcester, Avon, Derbyshire, Hampshire, Norfolk, Stafford, Cambridgeshire, Nottinghamshire and Berkshire - following positive consumer feedback from the Kent trial.

The scheme will mean one third of all strawberries sold in Tesco stores during the English season, or 10 million punnets, will be locally produced. Some 95% of strawberry sales in total will be UK-produced, with 5% imported.

The fruit will be supported in store with locally branded Pos and packaging. Producers will also be invited into stores for meet-the-grower events. "Customers tell us they want to be able to support their local economy and their local growers and we are delighted to be able to give them the chance to do this," said Tesco strawberry buyer Andrew Gaunt. "This is also a great opportunity for British growers across the regions to grow their business and raise their profile in the local area."

Earlier this year Tesco pledged to boost the level of local products it sells from £400m this year to £1bn by 2011. As much as half of that is expected to be fresh produce.

The supermarket also announced this week it had launched a 'fruit and veg pledge', by which it would cut prices on different popular items each week.

The initiative is aimed at improving the health of the nation, said executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe. One of the first promotions will be a discount of more than 50% on Jaffa oranges.

Neville-Rolfe also claimed that unlike some other promotions, the pledge would be funded entirely by the retailer and not by suppliers.

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