Aldi is on the verge of overtaking Tesco as the biggest seller of British apples, new research shows.

According to the latest supermarket sales data from national trade body, British Apples & Pears (BAPL), Aldi sold just 95 tonnes less than Tesco, which sold 4,374 tonnes of UK-grown apples in January 2023.

The data which looks at apples sold to UK supermarkets by BAPL growers, saw Sainsbury’s in thrid spot, having sold 3,088 tonnes at the beggining of the year, and disocunt grocer Lidl 486 tonnes behind.

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BAPL also looked at the percentage of British apples sold in comparison to the percentage of total grocery market share of each of the leading UK supermarkets.

This found that while Tesco has a total market share of 27.5% and sold 22.6% of British apples in January, Aldi sold 22.2%, yet had a market share of just 9.2% at the time.

However, Big 4 grocer Asda had the largest imbalance between its market share and the quantity of apples sold, representing 14.2% of the market while selling only 4.4%.

“British retailers say they want to support British, and this data will reveal those retailers that really are buying British,” British Apples & Pears executive chair, Ali Capper told The Grocer.

“It’s going to be fascinating to see which supermarket comes out on top this season.

“It’s so important all our supermarkets get behind British farmers and British apples. We know that consumers want British if at all possible. When we have such wonderful fruit available in good quantities, that will store well, there really is no reason to look overseas.”