Better understanding of food producers is needed, says strawberry farm

Annabel Makin-Jones, owner of Annabel’s Deliciously British, believes customers wouldn’t expect their food to be so cheap if they understood the challenges producers have to overcome.

She told The Yorkshire Post: “We’ve got a minimum wage rising every single year. We have to pick strawberries and provide strawberries at a certain price.

“We get smashed on price every year by the supermarkets. Minimum wage goes up and we have to keep finding a way of being able to grow the food at the price that they want for the customers to have it.

“If customers were more aware and actually understood, they wouldn’t have this expectation of food being so cheap.”

The coronavirus outbreak has led to people caring more about where their food comes from. They’ve also had more time to visit farm shops and cook at home.

“There’s definitely been a switch in terms of people showing more interest in food and the provenance of it, which is a positive for us,” Ms Makin-Jones said.

However, she isn’t sure that this trend towards caring for where food comes from will continue once the current pandemic has passed.

Ms Makin-Jones added: “If we look at what has happened with lockdown, what was the one thing that everybody has needed? Food.

“Agriculture used to be such a huge industry and it’s so small now compared to what it was but when the chips were down, that was the industry that everybody needed.”

During the picking season, Annabel’s Deliciously British has 300 people working at the farm in Leeds.

Ms Makin-Jones started fruit farming 16 years ago but set up Annabel’s Deliciously British as a brand in 2019. Coronavirus has led to the business having to change living and work arrangements for pickers at the farm.

They have all been split up into teams of ten, which have to adhere to rota for everything from using the laundrette to using the recreational facilities to reduce the risk of transmission.

Annabel’s Deliciously British picks between 1,800 to 2,000 tonnes of strawberries each year and supplies the likes of Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Booths.

The business is also gaining attention overseas. It recently started supplying Dubai supermarket chain Spinneys.

Annabel’s Deliciously British is also due to start a trial in Japan in two weeks’ time.

For every punnet of Annabel’s Deliciously British branded strawberries sold, the business makes a donation to the Prince’s Trust.

Ms Makin-Jones said: “It’s all very well giving money to charity but actually people want respect and people want to be able to provide for their families and children themselves. It’s far better to give them skills to enable them to do that than to throw money at them.

“I also offer placements within our business so that people who have never had the opportunity to be involved in agriculture can come here for a placement.”

In the long-term, Ms Makin-Jones hopes to help educate inner-city children about where their food comes from and create a charity.

She also hopes that people will reward small food producers with loyalty for their work during the pandemic.

“There’s been a massive drive for the NHS and I completely understand but us small producers have continued to produce food. Without food, none of us would be alive,” Ms Makin-Jones said.

Nothing goes to waste

Annabel Makin-Jones has become a zero waste farmer by creating her own line of jams and chutneys. The farm will also be producing its own honey next year – using bees to pollinate strawberries.

“Hopefully, the honey should have a taste of strawberries from the pollination,” Ms Makin-Jones said.

In addition to the strawberries, Annabel’s Deliciously British also has its Tame and Wild fruit drinks.

“Tame and Wild drinks are my all-natural drinks,” Ms Makin-Jones said. “They are from the garden, the hedgerow and the fields.”

That brand was launched last September.