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> FARMA Local Food Award Winners 2009 announced!

Farm shops and farmers’ markets across the UK are celebrating national success after being declared this year’s farm retail winners in the prestigious FARMA awards from the National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association. The announcement was made earlier this week at the FARMA conference in Newcastle.

The FARMA awards are unique. They are peer-assessed, so that the award-winners are chosen not only for their great food and customer service, but for their excellence in marketing, management and retailing, as well as a commitment to environmentally sustainable farming and production of food.

This year’s nine award winners include:

• Chatsworth farm shop, Derbyshire (Farm Retailer of the Year and Best On-farm Butchery),
• Goldy’s farm shop, Dorset (Own & Local Farm Retailer),
• Doddington farm shop & café, Lincolnshire (Best Newcomer),
• Moseley farmers’ market, Birmingham (Certified Urban Farmers’ Market of the Year),
• Brigg farmers’ market, Lincolnshire, (Certified Rural Farmers’ Market of the Year),
• Parkside farm, Middlesex (Best pick-your-own),
• The Farmers’ Cart, Yorkshire (Best On-farm Restaurant),
• The Organic farm shop, Gloucestershire (FARMA Environmental Award).

Gordon Wilson, chairman of the judges, congratulated the winners on their achievement, “Every year new farm shops and farmers’ markets are opening, and every year the standard gets higher and the competition tougher. This year was no exception, and I am very proud of all the winners who rightly deserve to be called farm retail stars.”

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Award winner Richard Stanley being presented with the FARMA Pick Your Own of the Year 2008 award by sponsor Rebecca Dawson, Tozer Direct

The BBC's Farming Today focused on the past and future of Pick Your Own at one of our What Makes a Winner events at Rectory Farm in Oxfordshire, winners of the FARMA Pick Your Own of the Year award 2008. Listen to an excerpt from the programme below.

With numbers of Pick Your Own farms dwindling over recent years, FARMA's event at Rectory Farm was both for other FARMA members to come and learn what makes Rectory special, but also as another sounding board for future developments in PYO.

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The FARMA National Awards are unique.
They reward excellence in a number of different categories related to farm retailing and direct sales and, in order to enter them, FARMA members put in a great deal of effort. We ask about business performance, staffing and training; about marketing and publicity; what they are doing as a business to reduce their environmental impact; and what they believe they contribute to their community. These are not everyday questions but they are questions that FARMA believes everyone involved in farm direct sales should be asking of themselves and their team...

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The 2008 Award categories are:

• Farm Retailer of the Year rewards all-round business excellence (sponsored by Tyrrells Potato Chips)
• Certified Farmers’ Market of the Year rewards business excellence in farmers’ market management (sponsored by FARMA)
• Own & Local, a new award designed to reward a high proportion of own & local products sold (sponsored by FARMA)
• Best Newcomer rewards a strong business performance from businesses with less than three years trading history (sponsored by G7 Computer Services Ltd)
• Pick Your Own Farm of the Year (sponsored by Tozer Direct)
• Best Bakery is a new award this year, looking for distinction in farm shop bakeries (sponsored by Mantinga)
• Best Butchery is another new award this year, rewarding own production, on-farm butchery skills and presentation (sponsored by Bizerba UK Ltd)
• The FARMA Environmental Award speaks for itself, identifying best-practice in reducing environmental impact in addition to low food-miles (sponsored by Canby)
• The Marketing Award rewards promotional activities linked to strategic objectives, which have a demonstrable impact on the business (sponsored by Reddipak)
• In addition, there are two occasional, individual Awards presented by the FARMA Council, one is for Lifetime Achievement and the other is called Community Spirit. Both are presented this year.

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For a printer-friendly list of farm shops with café-restaurants, click here (PDF, opens in new window)

BBC Countryfile visited Stroud Farmers' Market, winner of this year's Certified Farmers' Market of the Year award and talked with Clare Gerbrands, market manager, and our own Gareth Jones. Sandy Boyd of Ludlow Food Centre was also interviewed in the programme on the topic of farm shops.

See the programme below:

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