The session illustrated with practical examples how cooperation has helped a retailer to find solutions.
Dalehead Foods is an integrated pig production and processing business that is the sole supplier of Organic pork products for Waitrose. The organic pigs for Waitrose are produced by BQP (a division of Dalehead) and the Organic Pig Company who is a long standing supplier to Dalehead and Waitrose.
We use approximately 8000 tonnes of compound organic animal feed per year which we purchase from one feed supplier giving us greater control of the raw material inputs into our diets.
As a pig production business we face several challenges with organic grain sourcing from the UK including yield and quality variation, price, competition from other markets and availability. Our aim
however is to source where possible from the UK and we currently source 100% of our organic wheat and barley from the UK.
We have achieved our aim over the last 8 years by working with an organic merchant, Organic Arable. Through this collaboration with Organic Arable and their arable farmers we have developed a pricing mechanism to aim for greater price stability. The intention is of this arrangement is to provide a secure market for UK organic producers and a supply of organic feed grains of known provenance for the organic pig herds.
