From the CEO
Maximum market access with minimum audit
In this edition of Member Matters you can find out how Red Tractor has retained access for crops members to the vitally important biofuels market.
This means that Red Tractor farmers will see ongoing benefits that include: avoiding additional audit requests; and preventing grain being displaced within the UK, by imported RED certified grain.
This follows last month’s exciting news that Red Tractor assured pig meat can now be exported to California without an additional audit.
These are further examples of Red Tractor’s commitment to maximising market access for the minimum possible audit. We achieve this at different points across the UK food chain and continue to look for ways to reduce the possibility of new audits on farms.
Another recent example of us lightening the load includes the agreement with Tesco to bring the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group assessments into the Red Tractor assessment process, which reduced the audit burden for 450 dairy farmers supplying Tesco. This mirrors Tesco’s 2018 recognition of Red Tractor’s Fresh Produce standards as being equivalent to its Nurture scheme, benefitting around 800 Red Tractor assured fruit and vegetable suppliers.
NFU’s Governance Review
Red Tractor continues to give its full support to the NFU's ongoing Governance Review. Last week, NFU Council received an update from consultancy firm Campbell Tickell, on their work in progress.
The NFU published a short update here, which included that:
"Work to date has identified there is much agreement that UK food assurance has a vital continuing role, while there are questions around how exactly the role of farm assurance should be defined in today’s more challenging environment. The review has also found that the processes and documentation in place are largely sound. Recommendations from this review will be outlined in a final report by Campbell Tickell, which they confirmed is on track to be delivered later in February."
We look forward to the Review process completing next month and will communicate further with you when the findings are available.
Best wishes,
Jim Moseley, Red Tractor CEO
