The Yorkshire Agricultural Society has submitted plans to Harrogate Council for a Regional Agricultural Centre consisting of a farm shop and cafe in conjunction with a two-storey office block intended for use by agricultural and rural not-for-profit organisations.

The proposed farm shop, which would have 2,874 sq ft of retail floor space, would sell farm produce from across the Yorkshire and Humber region. In support of its submission, the Society says: "There is no other farm shop in Yorkshire which has the unique qualities that co-location with the Yorkshire Agricultural Society and the Showground can offer.

"The farm shop will be of regional significance in that it will embrace YAS's charitable aims as much as commercial objectives. It will promote other farm shops with the overarching aim of encouraging people to understand and buy local produce wherever they buy it from.

"Jamie Oliver's high profile campaigns to get children to eat better and understand more about food and its production is an important call to action which the YAS wants to rise to and this farm shop with all its educational elements is a key to this ambition. This makes it totally unique."

The society intends that 85 per cent of produce would come from the region with a 15 per cent flexibility to take account of seasonal variations. It would offer seasonal vegetables, fruit, fresh meat from its own butchery, dairy produce, ice cream, eggs, honey, preserves, cheese, chutney and a bakery.

It would provide farmers with an outlet while at the same time educating children and their families about regional and seasonal produce and agriculture in general. The cafe would seat 80 people. It would serve local produce and also provide cookery demonstrations and food launches.

Harrogate already has an award-winning farm shop – Weeton's on West Park – but the YAS says the family run shop's target market is different from its own.

"Weeton's is aimed at the higher end of the market and while it does offer a range of Yorkshire products, it also offers a diverse range of products from foreign wines and beers to fresh soup from Dorset. The YAS farm shop will be more locally and regionally biased, will have education at its core and will offer more affordability to a mass market than Weeton's."

The YAS built a new headquarters from the money it received after leasing land to Sainsbury's for a supermarket on part of the showground. Pavilions overlooks the President's Lawn but that accommodation is now said to be cramped.

If planning permission is granted the society wants to relocate its office staff to the new building planned for a site off Railway Road on the southern edge of the showground. This would make space for the creation of "break out" rooms within Pavilions when large conferences are being held there.

The YAS staff, who are expected to increase from 21 to 30 over a number of years, would be accommodated on the ground floor of the new building. On the first floor there would be space for organisations such as the Yorkshire Federation of Young Farmers, NFU and the Country Land and Business Association

Harrogate Council make a decision later in the year, after consulting a number of organisations.