AN organic farmer from Okehampton has won a battle against supermarket heavyweight Tesco after the company agreed to remove a photograph of him from its website.

Martin Godfrey, who owns an organic produce business, said he had never supplied Tesco with products and was shocked to find a picture of himself on the supermarket’s website.

The picture was used as part of a campaign aimed at tackling food waste, however, Mr Godfrey was not asked permission for the photograph to be used.

Mr Godfrey said the photograph was originally taken when he was working for Shillingford Organics near Exeter but was later sold on as a stock image.

Tesco later obtained the image through its advertising agency, which acquired it from Getty Images — an online photo agency.

Mr Godfrey said the picture of him pulling carrots on the organic farm was a ‘marketing blunder’.

He said: ‘This inappropriate use of the organic farming image and myself was taken whilst working at Shillingford Organics some 10 years ago, which has no connection to Tesco whatsoever.’

Since stating his complaint, the image has been removed from the supermarket’s online promotions but remains printed in some of its magazines.

Tesco has promised not to use the image in future promotions and has offered to donate £1,000 to a local charity.

A Tesco spokesperson said: ‘We work tirelessly to support farmers and suppliers and we are sorry for any upset that has been caused.’

In response Mr Godfrey said he appreciated the supermarket was ‘doing something about food waste’ and suggested other supermarket chains should do the same.