Organic vegetable delivery business to expand with Defra grant
Riverford Farm, Totnes, Devon"We have grown from 4,500 customers a week when we applied for the Defra grant to 7,000 now and we want to grow to 15,000 a week in the next few years.
"We are looking at many new jobs over the next few years. When we were supplying 5,000 vegetable boxes weekly, we created 65 jobs in a single year, from farming to distribution. There's no reason why that kind of development can't continue."
Russell Watson, Riverford Farm
An organic farm business near Totnes in Devon has been awarded a Defra Processing and Marketing Grant.
The Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) is a capital grant scheme under the England Rural Development Programme (ERDP). It is designed to improve the agricultural processing and marketing infrastructure in England.
Riverford Farm runs a vegetable box scheme, providing customers with organically grown vegetables on a weekly basis. To supply the business, farmer Guy Watson buys in vegetables from other local producers as well as using vegetables grown on his own farm.
The £274,000 grant will improve the production and packaging of the boxes and also the company's information technology, speeding up responses to customer requests and improving office administration. The money is also being used to provide better facilities for staff and improve recycling facilities at the main site.
Riverford itself employs 110 people directly in the summer and 60 in the winter.
Malcolm Chalmers of Defra's Rural Development Service said: "This is a scheme that not only provides jobs directly but also has a major spin-off benefit for other rural businesses and the 60 plus local producers that supply Riverford with organic vegetables."
The Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) is a capital grant scheme designed to improve the agricultural processing and marketing infrastructure in England. It is open to individuals, collaborative groups of primary producers, or private and public limited companies. Priority is given to small and medium sized enterprises. £44 million has been made available for the PMG over the period 2001 to 2006.
Page last modified:
19 May, 2005
Page published: 5 August, 2003