Cooperative sector to play an increasing role in UK farming industrys future

Farmers in the UK are only scratching the surface in terms of achieving the practical, financial and political benefits that could result from more extensive use of collaborative purchasing of inputs, crop marketing and sharing of information, according to the Chief Executive of one of the UK’s leading farmer-owned businesses.

Commenting ahead of Cereals 2011, the UK’s premier annual event for arable farmers, Richard Anscombe, Chief Executive of the AtlasFram Group, stated:

"Cooperation between UK farmers has brought enormous benefits over the last 50 years, but what has been achieved to date represents only the tip of the iceberg relative to what will be possible in the future. One only has to look to other European countries to appreciate that UK agriculture can achieve much more.

"The increasing globalisation of the agricultural supply industry will make it increasingly important for farmers to belong to a strong cooperative which acts solely in their best interests, is able to secure the best terms for their input purchases and generate optimum returns from crop sales. Indeed, the long-term survival and prosperity of family farming businesses depends on ensuring that they can continue to compete in a fast-changing commercial environment where scale of operation is becoming increasingly important."

Established in 1960 by a small group of pioneering farmers in Suffolk who recognised that they could secure much better terms on farm inputs by purchasing as a group rather than individually, AtlasFram is still wholly-owned by its farmer members, although the scale of the business has increased substantially.

With 1100 Members farming 250,000ha throughout the UK and an annual turnover exceeding £150 million the Group is dedicated to ensuring that its Members benefit from exceptional value on purchases and market-leading returns for the crops which they market through the Group.

"The presence of AtlasFram in the market has had far-reaching benefits for all farmers because we have introduced a strong element of competition into the agricultural supply industry. Even those who are not Members have enjoyed significantly better value," emphasises Richard Anscombe. "We now operate in a global economy where the number of manufacturers and distributors who supply the agricultural industry is diminishing rapidly and those who remain operate on a much larger scale. It is therefore increasingly important that farmers are represented by a strong purchasing and marketing group which acts solely in their best interests, which has no ’commercial’ axe to grind and which provides access to a team of experts who they can rely on to give totally impartial advice.

"The scale of our business allows us to purchase inputs from suppliers on significantly better terms than any individual farm, however large, could hope to do. It also enables us to be pro-active in terms of working with suppliers to secure the inputs which Members require and makes it possible to provide the best possible advice and guidance, an aspect of farming which is becoming ever more important as ’markets’ become more volatile. Nowhere is that more evident than in the commodity markets, where our alliance with ADM Direct is proving hugely beneficial in terms of the range of products and services we offer and the market intelligence to which Members have access.

"The world of agriculture is changing at an ever-increasing pace, yet ironically at a time of greater legislative pressures and increasing demands on the industry from all directions the amount of public money which is invested in agriculture, either directly or indirectly, is declining sharply. Clearly, farmers will increasingly have to look after their own interests and one way that they can leverage their investment and effectiveness is to work together with like-minded professionals. The good news is that in order to do this they don’t have to ’reinvent the wheel’, because in AtlasFram they have a golden opportunity to be part of a ready-made organisation which includes a very strong team of professionals whose sole focus is to do their best for the Members."