Congratulations to Annabel’s Deliciously British for their incredible achievement in winning the Farmers Weekly Diversification Farmer of the Year 2024 award.
We’ve had the pleasure of working with Annabel for a few years now, and having her fantastic products within our supply chain via our friends at Delifresh and, now more recently, Foodpoint Produce.
If you haven’t had a chance to have a tour around the brilliant facilities in West Yorkshire, let us tell you a bit about why they are so fantastic!
About Annabel
Annabel Makin-Jones, the founder of Annabel’s Deliciously British, is a 5th generation Yorkshire farmer, who understands the importance and power of supporting British growers. The powerhouse brand we know today started during Annabel’s university days, where she decided to grow premium strawberries with her father at their family farm. The product quality spoke for themselves and she started to supply some of the top restaurants and retailers with her strawberries. It wasn’t until a decade later that she founded Annabel’s Deliciously British.
Sustainability & Stewardship
It’s clear that sustainability has always been at the forefront of Annabel’s, as a 5th generation farmer, Annabel knows how important land stewardship is to the future.
Most recently, this has been shown by their achievement in gaining their B-Corp accreditation! However their accreditations and accolades don’t stop there. Annabel’s also has Leaf, BRC, Red Tractor and have even achieve Carbon Neutral status with the One Carbon World Carbon Neutral International Standard.
“At Annabel’s Deliciously British, we care as much about what we produce as that we leave behind, which is why we are so committed to achieving top-notch quality with a sustainable, local supply. We believe in a better future for British farmers, producers, and consumers alike.”
The farm is incredibly forward-thinking, from their on-farm lake (where the water is extracted from a borehole and stored in the lake) which is used for the farms irrigation, to their reduced use of pesticides, hydroponic systems, and more.
Annabel’s take their stewardship seriously. In the last 30 years, they have planted 79,000 trees on their 160ha farm, where 32ha of strawberries are grown in polytunnels to produce roughly 2000 tonnes of fruit each year.
But this doesn’t just relate to the land, Annabel’s employ roughly 350 seasonal workers during the summer to help with peak season, where they provide living wage, performance related bonuses and accommodation. Annabel’s have a return rate of 85% of their workers!
Diversification
We’ve mentioned Annabel’s forward-thinking nature, but lets dive deeper into their skill of diversification and reducing waste. Food production have specifications that means that products must fall within the chosen specified size, appearance and quality if they are to be sent to (especially retail) customers. As we all know, food does not always fall into these specification 100% of the time, which means that there could be some food wastage. Annabel identified this flaw, and decided that enough was enough, and she created 2 new products to ensure as much of this product is utilised as possible. Annabel’s now create a range of chutneys, jams and soft drinks, using the fruit that falls outside of retailer specification, to ensure minimal wastage.
What were initially brought onto the farm solely as pollinators for the strawberry plants, Annabel’s now care for 22 colonies of bees on the farm. Where the bees are kept busy and happy. Again, to avoid any by-product waste, Annabel’s produce and sell the honey that is produced by the busy bees, alongside whole sheets of honeycomb.
“What we leave behind matters as much as what we produce so we’re constantly working to produce the highest quality produce, sustainably, without compromising on both taste and the needs of future generations.”
It’s clear why we are proud to work with Annabel’s, they are absolute advocates for British Farmers and pioneers for innovation and diversification.
If you’d like to learn more about Annabel’s reach out for a chat today, or have a look at their website and the article outlining the justification for the very well deserved win of Farmers Weekly Diversification Farmer of the year 2024.
