Tesco has come under fire from farmers for its continued use of ‘fake farm’ branding.

At the recent NFU Cymru conference at Llandrindod Wells, Abergavenny goat milk producer Gary Yeomans questioned Tesco’s head of agriculture on why the company continued to market produce under the Woodside Farms and Boswell Farms brands.

Barney Kay suggested consumers were aware that there were not real farms.

“The buying public have moved on,’’ said Mr Kay, insisting that consumers understood that such a large and diverse range of products could not come from one farm.

Defending the policy, Mr Kay said: “It’s about having a consistent brand.’’

Tesco’s sourcing of New Zealand lamb also came in for criticism but Mr Kay said this lamb was now only used to fill voids when demand for lamb outstripped UK supply.

During Easter 2018, Tesco required 750,000 lambs to provide the number of legs of lamb it sold over the holiday; at that time weekly output from its UK suppliers was 60,000, he said.

“We cannot source all our lamb in Britain to meet commitments,’’ Mr Kay added.

But he admitted that mistakes had been made in the past, when Tesco sold New Zealand lamb when UK production could deliver on supply needs.

“We have got that much better now,’’ Mr Kay maintained.