MKS0901016 Agriculture 09 A5 AW:: 30/4/09 10:23 Page 7
Supporting UK and Irish
producers
We continue with our commitment to source
100% of our fresh beef, pork, chicken, veal,
farmed salmon, fresh mackerel, sardines,
monkfish, fresh eggs and milk from the UK
and Ireland. In addition, we are taking steps
to source an even larger proportion of all our
food from the UK - from April 2008 to March
2009 100% of cauliflowers, 78% of potatoes
and 88% of sprouts sold in our UK stores
were grown in the UK. We also now sell
British grown flowers all year round and are
working hard with our farmers to increase
the UK season for many products.
Fair Partner
At M&S we believe that all workers producing our products,
whether they work on a farm in the UK or a clothing factory
in Bangladesh, are entitled to good working conditions. In
the UK we have worked with growers and the National
Farmers Union to develop a grower manual to help advise
farmers on fair employment standards. We also hold
conferences and supplier exchange meetings so that
growers can discuss the challenges they face and share
good practice on managing their workforces.
We are also still firmly committed to our fair partner ‘buying
pledge’ which sets the price paid to farmers for their products.
The pledge is regularly reviewed using an independent
formula with milk, organic beef and some UK lamb farmers
producing our speciality ranges. This guarantees farmers
a price that recognises the challenges our producers may
be facing.
Fairtrade cotton production
marksandspencer.com/PlanA