Tesco has announced that its supplier farm in Lincolnshire has successfully grown its first crop of highly sustainable potatoes, which will be stocked this week.

This is part of a collaboration with Branston which aims to help farmers and suppliers reach net zero targets and practice a low carbon concept farm.

The retailer has now stocked 500 tonnes on shelves from 23 February onwards in Tesco stores and in Tesco Finest British All-Rounder and Baking Potato packs.

The product was grown using a number of low carbon emission techniques such as circular economy fertilisers, minimum cultivations and transitioning to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel.

Andy Blair, Branston’s field technical manager overseeing the operation at the concept farm, said: “It’s a huge milestone to have achieved a lower average carbon footprint in the production of this crop of Georgina potatoes compared to conventional production averages.

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“The findings from this process will support the wider industry in edging forward towards national sustainability targets, which is exactly the outcome we’d hoped for.”

This is part of the supermarket retailer’s push towards promoting sustainability across its supply chain, with Tesco bringing back the Agri T-Jam start-up pitch competition to tackle agriculture issues last year.

Natalie Smith, head of sustainable agriculture and fisheries at Tesco, said: “One of the aims of the farm is to test and learn from a variety of low-carbon approaches, which in turn can de-risk the process for other farms in our supply chain and further afield.

“Increasing funding for innovation in UK agriculture is one of the key recommendations in our Greenprint for UK Farming report, and it’s vital farmers have the ability to invest in new technology and approaches if we’re to tackle the challenges caused by climate change and nature loss.”