Trade body the Soil Association has launched its annual awards for the organic sector with a range of categories for suppliers, restaurants and box schemes.
Dubbed the ‘BOOMs’ (Best of Organic Market), the awards are backed by food writer and blogger Rosie Birkett as this year’s ‘celebrity ambassador’.
As well as industry recognition, the BOOMs offer a platform to profile organic ranges as well as a list of ‘who’s who’ in organic.
New categories are celebrating innovation in the market including the Best New Organic Product, Best New Organic Business and Best Organic Farmer. Other produce-related categories include Best Organic Fresh Produce, Best Organic Market Innovator and Best Organic Box Scheme.
Deadline for entrants is midnight on 31 March, with winners announced at an awards ceremony on 5 July.
Soil Association business development director Clare McDermott said: “The 2017 BOOMs are going to be bigger and better, the organic market is constantly growing and more and more people are looking for and talking about organic.
“With hundreds of new products launched last year alone, this is our chance to really make some noise about organic. We’ve got the fantastic Rosie Birkett, great sponsors and an even bigger panel of judges including food writers, bloggers and chefs – I can’t wait for this year!”
Birkett said: “The awards are certainly shaping up to be the most varied and interesting yet, with new categories and some really exciting judges to be announced.
“I’m particularly excited about the Nation’s Favourite Award – it’s a category open to the public to nominate their favourite organic product. I’ll be revealing more over on my website and social media pages in the coming months so watch this space.”
