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Posts Tagged ‘Best Of Welsh & Borders’

Chanceller Pledges A Penny Off A Pint

20 Mar

Welsh Country magazine has many beer producers with us on our Best Of Welsh & Borders listing and I’m sure they’ll be relieved that not only has duty on beer not been increased by the proposed above-inflation 3p beer duty planned this year by the previous Labour government, but The Chancellor has promised to take a penny off a pint. Actually cutting beer duty which is a much needed boost for at least one sector of our food producers cures and publicans.

Osborne stated that 10,000 pubs have closed in the past decade, Osborne said that curbing “the biggest discounts of cheap alcohol at retailers” without making responsible drinkers “pay the price” was a difficult balancing act.

The cut will take effect from Sunday night 24th March.

I did say I try and find some good news stories and hopefully this can be classed as one for some of you

 
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Ruthin Produce Market Is No More

20 Mar

I’m looking forward to posting a positive post but so far I’m failing as another market bites the dust. I think this is the third market I’ve been told quite recently that has now ceased trading. This time it’s Ruthin Produce Market, which not too long ago relocated to the Ruthin’s original market place, Market Street. My grapevine tells me that this was a very good quality market, with some great producers. Sadly it is one of quite a few markets that haven’t visited. I’m told that Ruthin market has closed because the volunteers just found it too much additional work for them. That’s a real shame because a few more volunteers could have lightened their workload, but seemingly that couldn’t be sorted. This is quite a common problem with producers. There are quite a large number that complain a lot, but not many will put in the extra work needed to keep these volunteer-run markets going. The general excuse is that they’re too busy, but the result is more markets closing will hit their pockets and make life even tougher that it already is.

Make no mistake I’ll continue to push and work hard for our producers with us on Best Of Welsh & Borders. But there is no way I can say I enjoy hitting my head continuously on the wag wall. I’ve never been backwards in coming forwards, telling our producers if I think they have got it wrong. Honesty is the best policy isn’t it? I’ve always tried to be constructive, becasue I think that’s the best way to win an arguement. It’s how I try to work with wag too, but as you gather by welshfoodbites, that’s not easy either as I hit brick wall after brick wall. At the end of the day Welsh Country magazine is the strongest food title Wales has and after all these years if we cannot work together to improve the lot of food producers, then something is seriously wrong.

In my book, anohter market closure is a disaster for the genuinely micro/small producers who are so reliant on markets and festivals to sell their produce. As I understand it our Welsh markets are run by a mix of councils, of course with staff we pay for, but many others like Ruthin are totally dependent on volunteers. Now as if this market folding isn’t bad enough, let’s just give a thought to Ruthin itself and the loss this will be to the local shop traders too. I remember visiting the monthly held Mumbles Local Produce market and after the market wound down I spent a few hours in the town chatting to local shopkeepers asking them their view of the market. They were unanimous in saying they loved their local market, their only wish was that it was weekly not monthly!

I have never had a clear idea on a practical level, how the £800k fork2fork campaign was going to help farmers’ markets, which  was one of the project’s roles along with box schemes and farm shops. But my view has not changed in that I don’t think it worked. So dear reader, with this project now extended for another year, plus a further £100k in their kitty, £43,761 of which will be spent on additional activity for the website and some further information circulation, have you any need to worry about the future of markets, box schemes and farm shops?

Answers not on a postcard please just post or email me direct if you prefer. But your identity on this site will remain confidential, you have my word.

 
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Do I Qualify As HCC’S Secret Shopper?

05 Feb

My sole purpose for calling into Tesco store at Haverfordwest last weekend was to check out Welsh meat prices. A pack of Welsh lamb was priced up at £4.50 and the exact same pack of New Zealand lamb was £3.33. A British leg of lamb was priced up at £10.00 whilst a similar pack of Welsh leg of lamb was £12.00. British casserole beef,  500gm packs, were priced at three packs for £10.00, whilst a single pack of 485gms was priced at £4.85.

My stance and my worry, is for our Welsh independent butchers, especially those that are working with us through our Best Of Welsh & Borders mailing list, BOW and although farmers have NFU and FUW fighting their corner, this situation is simply not acceptable.

Are HCC, Hybu Cig Cymru,  really expecting Welsh families, especially in the continued economic downturn, to somehow find the extra money just to support Welsh farmers and butchers? Or am I nearer the truth when I believe that HCC appear to be unconcerned about the plight of Welsh independent butchers and our Welsh farmers,  but guess their salaries are safe……….

 

 
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Carmarthen Food Festival

27 Jul

As I have already posted, it’s the day for producer complaints. This is the third today and now directed at Carmarthen. I attended this festival last year and was most unhappy to have producers complaining about the differing amounts that were being charged for tradestands. It seems though that lessons have not been learned.

I’m told this year that the local paper is again helping to organise and is trying to get tradestands to attend, saying that their trade stand booking includes an advert in the paper, but which makes the total price for one stand, for one day, £120.00.  But I’ve also  been told that if producers contact Carmarthen Council directly, the charge for a stand for the day is £40.00. What a difference!!! But that that makes the local paper is charging £80.00 for one advert.

I hope that all our producers with us on our Best Of Welsh & Borders have not got caught into paying £120.00 for one days’ trading. I am at a total loss as to how you get organisers, as well as the Welsh Government, to understand that our producers are selling food and they have to sell an enormous amount of food before they have even covered the cost of a £120.oo stand.

 

What’s your view on this and the many other topics posted on welshfoodbites?

You have nothing to fear by leaving your comments. I and many others too, enjoy reading them, even if you disagree with me – that’s still allowed! You can be certain your details will only be known to me and that’s where they’ll stay – you have my word. You don’t even have to put your name, a pen name or nickname will suffice, although we do have a large number of ‘traders’ signed in, that’s fine. It’s the content that matters, what you’re happy with, what you are cross about, what in your view needs changing, etc.

 

 
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North Wales Food And Hospitality Industry Conference

25 Jun

Good to know that  Deeside are talking to me and sure this will be of interest to quite a few of  you. Their Press Release has already been sent to our Best Of Welsh &  Borders producers and is also shown in full below:

Food and Drink producers, restaurateurs and caterers from across the region are being invited to the North Wales Food and Hospitality Conference, which will be held  at Deeside College on 18th July 2012. The  conference, which is the first of its kind, will bring together organisations  from across the sector for networking opportunities, best practice sharing and  business and finance support workshops. Concentrating  on a theme of supporting and promoting localism, the event is expected to  attract over 150 day delegates, with over 40 local suppliers using the  conference to showcase their produce.

The free event which is being supported through European Social Fund project, Skills  for the Workforce will offer workshops on Marketing, Customer Service, Staff  Development and Selling to Large Organisations, as well as highlighting the  different grant and funding options available to small and medium sized Welsh  businesses. Deeside  College Work Based Learning Manager, Carolyn Preece, one of the event organisers  said: “We  are delighted that with our many partners, we are able to offer the first North  Wales Food and Hospitality Conference at Deeside College. This conference has been developed to support and promote localism with local producers, suppliers  and businesses working together to reduce food miles and promote local produce coupled with a unique visitor experience.”

The  event will be held at the Deeside College site in Connah’s Quay on  18th July starting at 9am, with workshops going on until
approximately 3.30pm. The event is free of charge, but places are limited and  therefore delegates are asked to register their place by phoning Carolyn Preece on 01244 831531, or emailing acquiretraining@deeside.ac.uk.

 
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National Trust Appear To Be Upsetting Our Producers

03 Apr

I’ve not had many dealings with the National Trust, but have always admired the job they are doing in preserving our heritage and their on-going work for conservation and preservation.

However, what has disturbed me of late is getting feedback from quite a few producers, who initially and understandably chuffed to bits getting their produce stocked in National Trust, (NT) properties and shops are now not so pleased. The reason is money or to be precise the new payment terms from the National Trust. I’ve been told that any producer delivering and the invoicing the NT on 15th April would only be paid by the 30th June, that is payment at the end of the month following the invoice, but it may take 10 working days to process the invoice. Gosh how convenient for them.

I’m horrified by this, as I had, naively it now seems, to have this image of the NT as a fair company, on a par with the likes of John Lewis, a business you could trust. Not like one of the big four supermarkets who can make their suppliers literally jump through hoops rather than pay them promptly. If suppliers are forced to wait such a long time for their money, I’m disgusted. I’ll wait to be told my information is wrong and NT pay all their suppliers within 30 days – if not before! Another supplier not impressed with NT is one who has been waiting months, and months and months and months, to get some lines accepted and have been run around in circles, with still no decision.

I also hear of small companies having issues working in National Trust properties with planning delays and people having extended leave with no cover in their absence. Well this is a sad situation but my sympathies is of course to our producers.

I know from our Best Of Welsh & Borders producers how tough their life is and they really don’t need slow payers to add to their worries.

Many visitors come to Wales and to tour a historic house or castle is very much a part of their holiday experience. Whilst doing this they love to shop either for themselves or for a gift to take back home and its here where our Welsh food producers can fit the
bill. A gift of honey, jam, chutney, cheese, local beer or cider makes the perfect present. But if the news I’ve had through is accurate, then I can see many producers having no alternative but to stop supplying the NT and to look for other markets. Now this would be sad, obviously not just for our producers, but for the NT to have thrown away the opportunity to showcase local food from our artisan producers and offer our visitors some home grown treats. Our visitors don’t need to be offered gifts, knick knacks or tat made in China, Japan or Korea, for goodness sake offer them a selection of what is made here in Wales and be proud of that very fact – support our food producers please!!!

 
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Swansea Food & Drink Festival

05 Mar

I didn’t attend this one which ran on 25th February.

But talking to some Best Of  Welsh & Borders producers at Saundersfoot it was not a huge success. Not certain on this but was told stands were £185.00 for one day. It said one day event  on the web and on the listing I had through from Wag it showed this event was running either the 25th Feb or 3rd March, but apparently it was a two day show!!!! The tradestand prices are certainly not cheap, especially as this event got £8,004 funding  from Wag.

It is a poor show when traders don’t bother coming back for the second days trading. Generally the Sunday is always the quieter day, but if you can’t make money on the Saturday, do you really want to waste you time and fuel going back?  

It was the 6th year this event has run and obviously can’t give my comments as to how they can improve it but I’m certainly not happy to hear that traders were disappointed with the numbers of visitors and so that they were not able to make any decent money.

 
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Pembrokeshire Produce Direct – Accounts

21 Dec

I have received a copy of ‘Report and Unaudited Accounts for 30 November 2010 presented by the six directors. The company accountants were not instructed to carry out an audit or a review. The directors are satisfied that the company is entitled to exemption from the requirement to obtain an audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006.

Turnover/sales in 2010 was £173,712* as against £72,651 in 2009, cost of sales was £156,964 this year and £52,970 in 2009. This year their operating loss was £46,776 compared to £11,808 in 2009. The loss for 2010 was £44,296. I understand that the 2009 accounts are from trading starting in March.

In 2010, sales are listed as £163,980 with an addition of £9,732 for carriage outwards. As there was no carriage outwards shown in the 2009 figures, one can assume that this figure equates to  2,163 parcels at £4.50 each (the cost of carriage that PPD charges). This number of deliveries means over this 18 month period that the average number of deliveries per week was 27.

Also under Cost of Sales, carriage is listed once again as £14,838 for 2010 and £444.00 in 2009. Under Administration, postage is shown at £4,307 for 2010, which is an awful lot of letters sent, more than 11,000 first class letters sent at standard first class postage or over 11,000 magazine type mailings with Royal Mail discounts), but there is no postage shown in 2009. The accounts show a lot of blanks under 2009, bearing in mind the PPD project started in March, including packaging, wages and salaries, NI, staff training, rent, light & heat, stationery & printing, software and postage as a few examples.    

The accounts state that during the year the company suffered trading deficits that were partially supported by revenue grant aid. The directors have reviewed the forecast of trading deficits and believe that these will be supported by ongoing grant support which has been confirmed to them by Welsh Assembly Government. The directors believe that the company will continue to trade for the foreseeable future and that the going concern basis remains appropriate. The company received a grant advance of £93,906 from Welsh Assembly Government in 2009 to be repaid from all future grant aid dependant on continued trading performance.   

Administrative expenses shown for 2010

Employee costs:                £

Wages/salaries               70,435   

Employers NI                    6,647

Staff training & welfare       825

Travel & subsistence       2,208

Motor expenses                   399

Entertaining                      1,330

I’m still unsure of how many staff PPD is employing, or if staff numbers have been reduced since the project started, but £70k on salaries is extra-ordinarily high based against performance. Reading through these accounts again though, it appears that the salaries and NI shown, are from March 2009 as well as 2010.  

I am being told many tales about PPD, what I’m interested in knowing is which people put this initial project together and what they think of PPD performance so far…………………….

Thanks for those of you that have put up your comments on welshfoodbites, and the huge support we have had from our Best Of Welsh & Borders producers.  I’ve said before and shall repeat again, if you wish to put up your comments, no-one will know who you are, unless you wish to put your full name to your views.  The only person that will know is me, and I certainly will not reveal person’s identity. As always, you have my assurance on that.  

 

 
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Aberystwyth Christmas Market

19 Dec

Saturday saw me in Aberystwyth, in North Parade, the normal farmer’s market site, to see how the festive market was running without support from Wag this year. Wag had decided that in previous years, this event had too many craft stalls. Not an opinion that I would agree with, I’ve never felt that Aber. Christmas market had lots of craft, but if it had, I believe this was a plus for a festive market. But Wag, in their wisdom made that decision, but still went ahead supporting many other events this year that are clearly craft top heavy.

I’m disappointed that the organisers didn’t raise an official objection about this funding withdrawal, but perhaps they decided an objection on this one might not help their further applications for their other food events. If that’s the case, which seems likely, it makes a mockery of Wag’s system, but then as it’s never appeared fair to me, is that going to change now? I’ll leave you guessing as to the person in Wag that Aberystwyth’s organisers should have complained too, if they wished to have taken that risk …………………

My view is that this has always been a good festive market, it’s much needed for the town, it’s very popular with the traders and deserved some funding, but there again, what do I know about what Wales needs as regards food?

This year there were about 30 food stands and the quality of stands was very good indeed. There were roughly about eight craft stands and I do think the craft stands certainly added to this Christmas market. What better opportunity to blend food and craft all made inWales? I’d loved to have seen more banners and posters around the town, but at least there were some! This year the organisers were lucky with the weather, it was chilly and windy, but with spells of sunshine breaking through. As always there were some mixed reports from stallholders about how trade was, but generally they were fairly positive and it was lovely to see Gill’s Plaice there and the chance for me to purchase some excellent fresh Welsh fish. Always a delight to see some of our Best Of Welsh & Borders producers there to, they always tell me just how well, or not an event is going!!  

Some serious thought needs to be put in to see how trade in all Welsh markets can be improved. That needs to be done now whilst we still have markets and have traders willing to do them. Ihad hoped that with the fork2fork, 2 year, £800k project, markets would now be on a stronger footing, but it is certainly not what I m hearing.     

As I drove passed the market later in the morning, I spotted a large white van signed up as Pembrokeshire Produce Direct, (PPD). Perhaps I need glasses as I saw a PPD van at the festive market for Pembrokeshire Produce Direct, (PPD), but didn’t see their stand there. So why was one of PPD’s van parked up along with other trader’s vans?

I’m not sure how many vans, we, the taxpayers have funded to help PPD carry out their project, but are these vans available for all PPD members to use?   Or was this a one off?

 
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Update Pembrokeshire Produce Direct

06 Dec

I’m sure our Best Of Welsh & Borders producers will be glad of this latest information that’s come through, from a good source, which I hope will help with your queries on this project.

PPD submitted an application for a project under the Supplies Chain Efficiencies Scheme of the Rural Development Plan for Wales 2007 -2013, funded by the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development and for the Welsh Government.

Their objective is to develop a supply chain for primary Produce in Pembrokeshire, south Ceredigion and west Carmarthenshire.

The project started on 04/03/2009 and ends on 03/02/2014

It is to support a collective marketing initiative undertaken by 72 producers in Pembrokeshire, southern Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Swansea.

The total cost of the project is: £793,272 and PPD were awarded £469,530

I am also told that Pembrokeshire County Council has not put any financial funding support into PPD. Which does not agree with my being told that PPD did get an interest free loan as their grant had not arrived. PCC have supplied support as a coordinating and facilitating role as part of its business support for food producers in Economic Development. The idea of the project is to help local producers from Pembrokeshire and neighbouring counties to come together as a cooperative to assist in selling and distributing their produce to a wider customer base.   

 

 
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