Battle to retain new customers

Eblex, the beef and lamb division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, says there has been a rise in the number of farm shops wanting to join its Quality Standard Mark scheme that has corresponded with a rise in the number of shoppers looking for quality assured produce in the wake of the horsemeat revelations.

The scandal broke in February when meat labelled as beef was found to illegally contain traces of horsemeat. One farm shop owner in the region who noticed a significant rise in custom since the scandal broke is Katie Taylor, who opened Drewton’s Farm Shop three years ago near South Cave in the East Riding.

Her year-on-year turnover is 39 per cent up, some of which she attributes to the effects of the horsemeat scandal.

She said: “When it all kicked off it was fantastic for farm shops and for local farmers because customers became more aware of what they were eating and what they should be eating, provenance of food and food miles, as well as the quality of the meat they buy.

“We certainly saw new customers coming in who hadn’t come to the shop before and they made comments like ‘we won’t be buying from supermarkets, we’ve lost all faith and trust in them’. A lot of those customers have stayed with us.”

Other farm shop owners say they saw an initial spike in trade but many shoppers had reverted to old habits.

Stuart Beaton, who runs Ainsty Farm Shop in Green Hammerton, near York, with his wife, Lily, said: “We did see a boost in the immediate aftermath and an increase in interest in what we were doing but a lot of that has fallen away now, although we’ve still got a few who’ve kept coming to seek something of a more independent nature for their Sunday lunch.”

He said he was interested in the Quality Standard Mark scheme because promoting transparency and honesty as well as offering value for money was the key to winning a bigger market share.

Michael Richardson, Eblex’s direct sales manager, said: “More and more farm shops are seeing the benefits of being part of an assurance scheme and all the extra support that comes with it.”