Dairy innovation - have you got the bottle

Calling all farmers! The Milk Development Council's (MDC) annual Awards for Dairy Innovation are set to launch this week and farmers are being invited to register their interest in this year's award scheme.

Established in 2001, in honour of David Hall, the awards aim to celebrate innovation in dairy development and has seen past winners, including Doddington Dairy Ice Cream, September Organic Dairy and last year's winner Red Kite Farms, benefit from significant funding for further product development.

This year, the awards will include the introduction of new categories, increased funding for product development and opportunities for the winning businesses to be promoted at leading trade show IFE.

The new award categories will include:

• Innovation in Dairy Development – the MDC is inviting entries from innovative products or services from across retail (consumer products) and catering (food service).

• The David Hall On Farm Business Development Award – open specifically to farmers, our judging panel will select a winner who has 'innovatively' developed their on-farm business. This could be a product, service, training or a groundbreaking idea. The award will include £5,000 plus a business development clinic from industry experts.

• Outstanding Contribution to Dairy Development – the MDC wants to celebrate the achievements of one special individual this year who has made a significant contribution to the dairy industry. The MDC is inviting nominations from across the farming, processing, media and retail industries.

And a panel of industry leaders and supporters of the UK dairy industry including celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson, founder of award-winning dairy Rachel's Organic (Rachel Rowlands) and senior executives from the NFU (Tim Bennett), Tesco Stores (Sheila Gallagher), Milk Strategy Initiative (John Beckett) and of course the MDC (Chairman Brian Peacock, Head of Marketing John Taylerson) will judge the entries.

Commenting on the importance of The Milk Development Council Awards, Brian Peacock, Chairman, MDC, said: "These awards provide us with a great opportunity to shout about the exciting developments taking place in our industry and showcase award-winning products, services and businesses to retailers and consumers alike - I urge farmers to get behind this annual celebration of innovation and enter their products, services, ideas and colleagues.

We need to promote UK dairy to new customers and markets and discovering and rewarding innovation is critical to the progression of the UK dairy industry and has to be a positive move for all."

Interested? To receive further information and an entry pack, please contact Lis Anderson or Jayne Robinson on 0117 973 1173. The deadline for entries is 30th September 2004