LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Tesco ( TSCDF ), Britain's

biggest supermarket group, has no plans to source American beef

despite last week's U.S.-UK trade deal giving the product access

to the UK market.

The deal gave U.S. farmers a quota of 13,000 metric tonnes

for beef which meets UK standards, with UK farmers having the

same quota for sales into the United States.

"We source 100% Irish and British beef in Tesco ( TSCDF ) and for the

foreseeable future that policy will be the same, we're not

planning to change it," Tesco ( TSCDF ) CEO Ken Murphy told Reuters on the

sidelines of the World Retail Congress.

As market leader, Tesco ( TSCDF ) has a 28% share of Britain's grocery

market.

No. 2 player Sainsbury's ( JSNSF ), which has 15% of the

market, similarly sources all of its beef from Britain and

Ireland.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins

hailed American beef as "the safest, the best quality and the

crown jewel of American agriculture" and predicted the trade

deal would "exponentially increase" U.S. beef exports to

Britain.

However, with little difference between prices of

British-produced beef and U.S. beef that does meet UK standards,

the U.S. product could struggle to find a UK market.