A major supermarket chain has launched an £8m local produce initiative – in response to the Western Morning News Buy Local campaign.

The arrangement will guarantee a local market for farmers supplying locally-produced beef to 130 Somerfield stores across the South West.

The launch follows a South West Food and Drink Conference at Taunton, where WMN editor Barrie Williams unveiled the latest phase of the newspaper’s Buy Local campaign, aimed at persuading big buyers, like supermarket chains, to source local produce.

It is almost a year since Buy Local began with the aim of helping Westcountry producers and processors fight back after foot and mouth.

As he unveiled the next phase of the campaign, Barrie said it was vital everything was done to ensure the region’s agricultural industry was equipped and ready to meet the demands it faced, and that meant investing in the next generation.

He said: “The ambitious and proud young people of the rural Westcountry are not afraid of the future. They are prepared to work in a different way.

“They know that food production is going to have to change. They know that the food producer of the future is going to need more control over what happens to that food; that it will no longer be enough just to leave it at the farm gate.”

Bristol-based Somerfield – with 600 stores nationally – says it is actively seeking to extend its local and regional buying strategy to create new markets for local farmers.

It will be marketing the meat under the “West Country Beef” banner and is the first step in a regional programme instituted by the chain to promote both local food and British-produced food.

The meat is being sourced from small local farms throughout the region, some of it from cattle raised virtually on the doorsteps of the individual stores.

Running parallel with the introduction of West Country Beef, Somerfield is launching a new labelling system, which will indicate local and regional foods in store, allowing customers to support both their local economy and neighbouring farmers.

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