SUPERMARKET shoppers in Cumbria's capital can dine on more local food this week after an innovative supply deal extended its reach to Carlisle.

Some 80 Cumbrian-sourced products will be appearing on the shelves of ASDA's Carlisle store for the first time after proving a hit in their Kendal and Barrow branches, reports Jennie Dennett.

It is the next step in a local sourcing initiative between the retail giant and Kendal-based farm shop and food producers Plumgarths. Plumgarths say the two-year-old deal has already boosted the local economy by £500,000.

Since 2002 the Plumgarths-ASDA Best of the Lakes' range has sold through ASDA 20,000 litres of ice cream, 14,000 litres of milk, 5,500 gingerbread cakes, 750,000 eggs, a million sausages, 11,000 litres of Lakeland water and 14,000 bars of Kendal Mint Cake.

The set-up involves 19 suppliers including Kendal's English Lakes Ice Cream, Swarthmoor organic dairyman Frank Morphet, Plumgarths Farm Shop Cumberland sausages and Diane Halliday's Mallerstang-based Countryfare cakes.

It is the brainchild of Kendal livestock farmer John Geldard and partners Steve Chambers and Paul Airey, who opened Plumgarths Lakelands Food Park, a centre including a farm shop and production units for cottage industries. The park now employs 33 full-time staff and 17 part-time.

Stock orders flow electron-ically from ASDA's tills to Plumgarths, which invested in a costly and sophisticated electronic ordering system to work with supermarkets. Plumgarths then pass orders on to individual suppliers who deliver goods to them for dispatch to stores.

"It's something small producers couldn't possibly deal with alone," said Mr Geldard. "It's been a major success. It's one way we can help small Cumbria suppliers get their products on the shelves of one of the world's biggest retailers."

Dealing with a supermarket had not meant hammering the prices down as many farmers' expected, said Mr Geldard.

"Our agreement has been to take the price the local supplier needs, if they can't pay it they can't have the goods. I'm not saying there hasn't been a negotiation on some aspects where there have been differences of scale that people felt they could negotiate on. But it hasn't been the case of negotiating the price down. That's not what the whole operation is about. It's about getting local products on the shelves.

"One thing that has surprised ASDA is the level of sales that can be achieved which collectively demonstrates that local produce is probably more important than the supermarkets ever realised. That has only been proved by us meeting the challenge of putting our product in their stores."

Using a few branded local' lines has opened up supermarkets to the accusation of tokenism that they are promoting a few local products to generate publicity while continuing to use cheap imports and drive down prices for primary products like milk.

Mr Geldard said it was ASDA's business how it ran other parts of its operation but said since supermarkets sold the lion's share of food, farmers had to seize the opportunity to work with them.

"The fact we have the opportunity to get our food on the shelves and give customers a choice is an opportunity one can't afford to miss. My attitude is to lead the way, to understand the supermarkets and work with them.. there is more to gain by working with them than condemning them."

Joe Hurst, general store manager at ASDA Carlisle, said the demand for locally-sourced products had "grown considerably" in recent years.

"The success of our initiative is testament to the high quality calibre of the producers in our region."