Angry Irish potato farmers storm Tesco Managers meeting

Tesco last night insisted it was the world's "biggest supporter"of Irish food and drink producers after a group of farmers stormed a meeting of the supermarket chain's top managers yesterday.

Around 30 potato growers burst into a meeting at a Co Meath hotel, attended by Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy and 200 managers, to demand that the UK retail giant stops selling British potatoes at its Irish stores.

The farmers brandished bags of imported Desiree potatoes, which they claimed are displacing Irish potatoes on Tesco shelves around the country.

They said farmers were "boiling over"with anger over Tesco's move to increase imports at the expense of Irish produce, and that this type of protest was "the only avenue open to us to protect jobs on this island".

The potatoes being sold were identical to Irish roosters that were plentiful in the Republic at this time, and there was no need for them to be imported, they said.