Speciality-Food-Magazine-March-2025

specialityfoodmagazine.com 49 Two Farmers are pioneers in 100% compostable packaging, with their innovation proving popular with sustainably-minded consumers – indeed, the team celebrated Earth Day 2024 by hitting the milestone of having sold 10 million bags of their crisps, which equates to 10 million conventional plastic bags saved from landfill and litter. As well as offering consumers packets of crisps in 100% compostable packaging – which they are encouraged to compost using advice shared on the business’s website and social media channels – Two Farmers provides crisps in 100g and 500g tins which are 100% recyclable and reusable, and are promoted online as creative storage containers, with fans sharing their composting and reuse journeys. The business’s sustainability consciousness stretches beyond packaging; the team prioritises sourcing ingredients locally to minimise food miles and grows potatoes within a 2-mile radius of the production site. By producing crisps in this way, Two Farmers are proud to champion the work of local produces and reduce their carbon footprint. The farm houses a number of sustainably-driven technologies, including winter irrigation lakes that are used to irrigate potato crops during the growing season; an on-site anaerobic digestion plant which allows potato scraps, peelings and waste crisps to produce energy which powers the production unit; and on-site solar panels, which power many of the farm’s processes. In its bid to become carbon neutral, the farm has seen substantial savings in the past five years – including a reduction of 21250KgCo2/year thanks to solar panels installed in 2022. With its innovative approach to production and sustainability-driven farming methods, Two Farmers are guiding consumers towards a better future one compostable crisp packet at a time. M atthews Cotswold Flour has beenmilling artisan flours in Britain for more than a century, always putting the quality of the grain first, bringing the very best products to both home and professional bakers. As one of the oldest family-run flour mills in the UK, Matthews Cotswold Flour feels it has a duty to lead from the front on sustainability – both of the land, and of livelihoods. The family’s own farmhas been organic since the 80s, and in 2019 the team, led by Paul and Bertie Matthews, began their regenerative agriculture journey, building a set of standards for themselves, and for a number of their partner farms which had already been integrating the practices into their operations for some time. It’s Paul and Bertie’s hope that 10,000 acres of land supplying Matthews Cotswold Flour will be regeneratively cultivated by 2030, encouraging on-farmbiodiversity in nature and deepwithin the soil. “Farmingmethods that create healthy soils and resilient fields are a top priority for us,” they say, adding that they want to put more back into their environment than they take out. Sustainability, to the family, is about more than caring for the land, though, it’s about people too, they say. Matthews Cotswold Flour works directly with local British farmers to grow their grains, helping to safeguard traditional farming jobs. The creation of The Cotswold Grain Partnership consolidates thismessage, fostering a sense of connection and collaboration in the industry, so those within it can share new ideas, develop new growing opportunities, and promote sustainable food and farming. Matthews Cotswold Flour is also committed to reducing waste through animal feed, using energy efficient technology, and working to reduce the business’s carbon footprint to net zero. MATTHEWS COTSWOLD FLOUR “Healthy soils and resilient fields are a top priority for us” TWO FARMERS “Our sustainability consciousness stretches beyond packaging” W e feel that organic is a really important part of the sustainability puzzle, a key sustainability solution. That’s because organic is a whole systems approach to sustainable farming and supply chains. Organic farmers use natural and innovative methods to, say, build soil health or manage pests and as such, organic farms are havens for wildlife. They have a 30% more biodiversity on average than non organic farms. They have healthier living soils with 25% more soil carbon storage on average and more soil microorganisms. Organic farmers also practice EU KS highest standards of animal welfare, where all animals are truly free-range. What’s more, organic is legally regulated and independently inspected at all stages of the supply chain, right the way from farm to fork. We’re really pleased to report that the organic market has now entered its 13th consecutive year of growth and in 2024 it showed strong growth across all key channels – also that independent retail was one of our best performing channels in terms of organic sales growth in 2024. 70% of the independent retailers who are involved in our research reported sales growth when it SOPHIE KIRKE SENIOR COMMERCIAL MANAGER AT SOIL ASSOCIATION CERTIFICATION SAYS INDIES ARE KEY TO GROWTH “The popularity of organic is growing” came to their organic land at lines last year, and 90% report or they predict future growth in 2025, which is really positive. One of the key reasons for this is that they see organic aligning more than ever with shopper concerns around health and sustainability. We know that retailers expect good organic ranging and distribution to be key to further building organic sales growth in 2025, alongside building better connections with consumers on the benefits of organic and helping them to understand organic as well. When it comes to products, we know that organic fruit, vegetables and dairy account for 50% of all organic sales in the UK. So having a good kind of range across this core, what we call entry, category for organic is really important. These are entry products for organic shoppers because they align so well with their needs around healthy, minimally processed and fresh ingredients. If you’re new to organic, you’re most likely to go and buy an organic fresh fruit or vegetable or an organic dairy product, so having a good range is key. We also know that organic ambient products can do really well in independent retail. We’ve seen good sales growth across the likes of organic oils and vinegars, organic cereals and other functional products such as chia seeds and turmeric which play into the health trend. That’s partly because of Tim Spector raising awareness of some of the evidence when it comes to organic and gut health. Organic plays well into the gut health trend partly because there’s some new emerging studies showing that synthetic pesticides can disrupt the gut microbiome and organic farming. Education is important when it comes to promoting organic – in- store messages about it and POS, shelf wobblers and things like that, are really key to helping to promote organic and Soil Association have a range of marketing materials for this. Last year the Organic Research Centre did some research on organic shopper trends, and found that two thirds of shoppers are now intentionally buying organic at least once every three weeks – meaning that the majority of households are intentionally and actively looking for it, which is really good news. There are three top reasons why people buy organic; number one, the fact that it has no artificial pesticides, so people are really recognising that that is not only better for them and their own health but also recognizing that that’s better for the environment. The second reason is understanding that organic has higher standards in general, including higher standards for animal welfare, which plays into the less but better meat and dairy trend. Number three is recognizing that organic is better for personal health in addition to the planet.