Honouring excellence and innovation in nut and dried fruit industry, the INC Awards are the premier international showcase of excellence for the nuts and dried fruit industry. There are 3 categories of awardees as follows:

• HONORARY: To recognize a governmental or non-governmental organization (NGO) dignitary who has either contributed to the industry or may be able to influence others to assist the tree nut industry. This award will be targeted to gain favourable publicity, governmental grants, duty reductions, etc.
• CORPORATE: To recognize a company which has made a significant contribution to the tree nut industry. The company must be a truly outstanding example of production and marketing of tree nuts.
• INDIVIDUAL: To recognize an individual who has clearly made a significant contribution to the tree nut industry (not just his own company) over a period of years.

2011 Golden Nut Award

Tesco Stores Limited

The INC recognized Tesco Stores Limited with the Corporate Golden Nut Award for its significant contribution to the nut and dried fruit industry.

Tesco Stores Limited operates as a retailer of food, non-food, and retailing services. Traditionally a UK grocery retailer, Tesco's strategy in the last 15 years has been centred on growing its non-food business, expanding its brand into retailing services & developing an international business. Alongside their Traditional grocery business, Tesco now provides customers with a wide range of products & services, such as financial & legal services, health food shops, opticians & pharmacies, photo centres, telecoms & garden centres. In addition, it represents 50% of the UK online grocery shopping market.

Founded in 1919 and based in Cheshunt, the United Kingdom, the company now operates in 14 countries worldwide, China, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Ireland, Slovakia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, UK and USA. It operates over 5,008 stores worldwide, employing 472,000 people. Its strong results over the past years have been achieved through a constant focus on what matters most to customers in challenging times worldwide.

Tesco Clubcard, the biggest worldwide customer loyalty scheme, has been centric to Tesco's customer focus.

In the last 10 years Tesco has considerably improved and enlarged its range of nut and dried fruit products adding both value and product innovation, as well as developing a strong seasonal business. Today, Tesco provides to the consumer more than 400 different nut and dried fruit lines

Honorary Golden Nut Award Recipients

1985 Juan Carlos I, King of Spain	1989 Mario Soares, President of Portugal
1990 Turgut Ozal, President of Turkey	1992 Pete Wilson, Governor of California / U.S.A.
1998 Jacques Delors, President EEC Commission - Belgium	2000 Daniel Inouye, Senator U.S.A.
2001 Franz Fischler Commissionner of AgricultureEEC Commission. Belgium.	2003 Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey
2005 Helmut Kohl (former), Chancellor of Germany	2007 Josep Puxeu Rocamora, General Secretary of Agriculture and Food Ministry of Agriculture

Corporate & Individual Golden Nut Award Recipients