Farmer in supermarket egg box row

An Essex farmer who failed to obtain an injunction to stop a supermarket using his picture on egg boxes after he lost a contract has pledged to fight on.

A judge at Harlow County Court adjourned the case for 28 days so that more information could be presented.

Ian Chisholm supplied free range eggs from his farm near Ingatestone to Tesco until April 2008.

His image continued to be used because thousands were in the system but Tesco said it would replace them soon.

Mr Chisholm said it was a complete misrepresentation to Tesco's customers to carry details of his farm on the packaging when he was no longer supplying them with eggs.

"This isn't about money, it's about pride and reputation - and what is right," he said.

"I hope common sense will prevail or Tesco will do the right thing and remove our details from the packaging so customers are not misled about the produce they are buying."

Redesigning packs

A Tesco spokesman said: "We are somewhat surprised and disappointed by the court action.

"We were very happy with the quality of the eggs supplied by Mr Chisholm and locally-sourced eggs are very popular with our customers in Essex.

"The contractual dispute that has taken this to court is purely between Mr Chisholm and the company we buy his eggs from - not Tesco.

"However, given that the issue between those parties remains on-going, we will work to redesign our packaging and remove Mr Chisholm's picture as soon as is reasonably possible.

"We are in the process of redesigning the boxes. However, there are many thousands in the supply chain and we believe it would be irresponsible to simply throw these in the bin."