Tesco contract offers stability

From the Western Telegraph, first published Friday 17th Jun 2005.

Supermarkets are often perceived as the bad guys in the food production chain, but one Pembrokeshire farmer is proving that a fixed price contract with a single retailer can have major benefits.

David Dixon grows 100 acres of new and maincrop potatoes for Tesco on fields overlooking the Cleddau Estuary at Houghton.

His agreement with the food retailer through UK-based Branston, the dedicated supplier of potatoes to Tesco, has given him the means to invest and double his acreage this year.

"I am getting a very fair margin; a Branston fixed price contract takes some of the seasonality out of the job. We don't want the ups and downs of the good and the bad years, I know the price right through to Christmas,'' said Mr Dixon, of Williamston Farm, Houghton.

He is currently harvesting Lady Christl earlies which are being sold through Tesco's Welsh stores. These will be lifted over the next four weeks before he starts harvesting Maris Peer through to Christmas.

The potatoes are transported to Branston's packhouse in Somerset for grading and packing from where they are distributed back to Tesco stores.

Mr Dixon had been dairy farming before giving up milk production in 1995. He sold his milk quota and cows and decided to focus solely on potato and corn production.

He grows some of the crops on the 120 acres he owns and also on additional neighbouring land he rents.

"I enjoy growing potatoes. We have got the ideal soil for it here, a good medium loam, so we can produce really top quality potatoes,'' said Mr Dixon.

This year he will supply Tesco with up to 1,500 tonnes of potatoes.

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