Peter Barfoot of Barfoots of Botley has won the coveted BBC Radio 4 Farming Today award for the UK’s farmer of the year.
Barfoot - whose business is based near Chichester - won the accolade for his strong conservationist and environment-friendly farming practices as well as for adding value to his farm’s products. “We are doing all the right things,” said Barfoot. “We are a Linking the Environment & Farming demonstration farm, a Defra demonstration farm and we have done a lot of work on farming and wildlife.”
Barfoot began farming 29 years ago on just 21 acres and now has 3,500 acres growing his products as well as farming partners in 12 different countries overseas.
Barfoot praised his whole team in playing a part helping him win the award. The firm supplies Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose with sweetcorn, courgettes, squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, asparagus and marrow. The company is also renowned for its early production of UK seasonal crops.
Sainsbury’s trading manager for produce, John Maylam said: “We work very closely with our suppliers to ensure we offer the best quality produce at all times. We are thrilled that Peter has won farmer of the year and would like to thank him for all his hard work over the last 23 years.”
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