Don't panic over coronavirus as food is plentiful, says Tesco boss

* No need for panic buying - Tesco chairman

* Expects only temporary shortages of products

* Supermarket industry has traded strongly over last week

* But shopper numbers down across sector

By James Davey and Kate Holton

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest supermarket
Tesco can keep shelves stocked and withstand shopper
hoarding over coronavirus that has seen runs on pasta, hand
sanitiser and toilet roll, its chairman said on Thursday.

Social media has been awash this week with pictures of empty
shelves in Britain's major supermarkets, with items like dried
pasta and toilet rolls particularly sought after.

But John Allan said that although Tesco's recent trading had
been characterised by heavy buying of certain products,
including tissues and hand sanitisers, it was not at a level
that threatened the retailer's supply chain.

"There’s plenty of product in the supply chain, there’s
plenty of food at Tesco and other supermarkets, and I don’t
think anybody needs to panic buy," he told BBC radio.

"We, and I’m sure our competitors, are re-filling our supply
chains as rapidly as ever we can."

Allan said it was unlikely Tesco, which has a 27.2% UK
grocery market share, would experience anything more than "very
short term, temporary" shortages of certain products.

Supermarket industry sources said trading in the last week
had been strong, with daily levels of up to 70% of those
typically seen on days in the run-up to Christmas, the busiest
time of the year.

"People aren’t buying everything and expecting the world to
end, what they’re doing is taking a very considered view, which
is 'what are the things with long life that I can hold – pasta,
UHT milk, frozen – and I’m going to buy 20-40% more of those
categories,'" said one of the sources.

"So the cumulative effect is it will put the factories, the
depots and the shops under pressure in terms of replenishment."

There has also been a pick-up in online grocery trade as
some consumers start to avoid social contact and choose delivery
options for bulk purchases.

The "million dollar question" is how consumers would react
to more stringent measures, such as school closures and more
working from home, if the government deems those necessary to
try to contain the spread of the virus, the source said.

British cases of coronavirus have jumped 29% to 590 over the
past 24 hours, health authorities said on Thursday, with the
death toll rising to 10.

SHOPPER NUMBERS DOWN

The wider retail sector is already struggling.

The Bank of England cut interest rates on Wednesday after it
saw a "sharp fall" in trading, particularly in the retail
sector.

Shopper numbers in central London and in coastal UK towns
were down 5.5% in the first eleven days of March, reflecting
their reliance on tourism, according to researcher Springboard.

Across the country footfall was down 1.5%, it said.

"Retailers had a rough time in February (due to storms) and
they're going to have a rough time in March," Springboard
insights director Diane Wehrle told Reuters.

She is now worried about Easter, a key trading period.

In a sign of the pressure, Britons' inboxes are full of
emails from distressed retailers offering major discounts.

And already, retailers are warning on profits: WH Smith
said the slump in travel would hit its stores in
airports and railway stations, wiping up to 40 million pounds
($50 million) off its full-year underlying profit.

($1 = 0.7927 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey and Kate Holton)