Beanstalk Global

Tim Rycroft joined the AHDB as CEO on 31 August 2021. He was formerly at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) where he joined as Corporate Affairs Director in September 2015. In September 2018 he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for strategy and corporate affairs as well as overseeing the federation’s policy on diet & health and on competitiveness. Prior to FDF, Tim held senior corporate affairs roles with InterContinental Hotels Group plc (as Director of Communications, Europe); Diageo plc (as Corporate Relations Director, GB and then Corporate Relations Director, Global Duty Free) and Boots Healthcare International (as Head of Corporate Affairs).  For three years Tim was a Special (political) Adviser in government, to the Minister without Portfolio and then to the Secretary of State for Health. Tim has also worked in corporate communications consultancy.

He has joined the AHDB at a time of significant change. As the AHDB chair, Nicholas Saphir has stated around Tim’s experience “In his previous commercial and FDF roles, his background makes him ideally equipped to lead the significant change that we have started to introduce to the organisation Tim will spearhead the ongoing programme of change within the AHDB”.

Tim stated at the time of his appointment: “It’s tremendously exciting to be asked to lead AHDB at this critical moment in its history. Nicholas Saphir and the team have set out a bold vision for change. Now this must be swiftly delivered so we can continue to play our vital role as a source of competitive advantage, underpinning a world class food and farming industry.”

We look to be one of the first media platforms to interview Tim live to find out more about his industry background to date, why the opportunity and positive challenges at the AHDB attracted to him and what we can all look to see from the positive development he and his colleagues are making both in the short and the long term.

In our March Broadcast, we are delighted to have Caroline Drummond MBE, Chief Executive of LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming).

Caroline has been running LEAF, the farming and environmental charity since it started in 1991. She is especially interested in the development of sustainable food and farming and she has over 38 years experience in this area.

She graduated in Agriculture and has broad practical agricultural experience from across the globe. Her work focuses on encouraging more sustainable farming practices and building a better public trust and understanding of farming, food, health and the environment – values that she is personally extremely passionate about. She is actively involved in many industry partnerships and initiatives in the UK and Europe.

In 2009 Caroline was awarded the Member of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen, she has an Honorary Doctorate from Harper Adams University, a Nuffield Scholarship studying ‘

What can Farmers Learn from Science to improve the Nutrition of our Food’ 

and was awarded Honorary Fellowship for the Society of the Environment. In 2017 she was awarded the IAgrE Award For Outstanding Contribution to the Landbased Sector and the Farmers Guardian Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture. In 2018 she was awarded the RASE National Agriculture Award and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Agricultural University.

Caroline is actively involved with the British Nutrition Foundation, North Wyke, the Agri-tech initiative – is a director of the Agri-tech centre on Crop Health And Protection, the Institute of Agriculture Management, and on the advisory board of the agricultural project for the Science Museum.

Women in Food and Farming is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

Beanstalk is very proud to offer our extensive platforms to allow Women in Food and Farming to continue their conversation and debate and to encourage new members ongoing to join them, be that on a virtual Broadcast basis.

The International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) exists to bring our industry together to create a vibrant future for all. They have a fresh outlook on fresh produce, believing it can help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. They are the largest and most diverse international association serving the entire fresh produce and floral supply chain, and the only to seamlessly integrate world-facing advocacy and industry-facing support.

If you have a place in the fresh produce and floral industry, you have a place in IFPA. They are here to grow your prosperity. They do that by conducting advocacy; connecting people and ideas; and offering guidance that allows us all to take action with purpose and confidence.

Each month, we will be focusing on a major area of Southern African fresh produce and discussing that all with the country’s key industry experts so we can learn and appreciate fantastic Fresh Produce for the area!

For March, we are taking a deep dive into the hugely innovative and ever moving world of AgTech!

If you just take the USA alone, when the nation was formed some 240 years ago, farming was the economy’s primary driver. By 1870, nearly half of the employed population held jobs in agriculture. Today, it’s a $3 + trillion industry – but only 2% of Americans hold a farm-oriented job.

This is, in many ways, thanks to technology. Tractors and other automation advances in the 20th century let large farms shift management to only a handful of people. But this, paradoxically, has also slowed things down in the 21st. With only a few people working every farm, there’s not a lot of time – or incentive – to innovate.

It has been often stated that you only get 40 attempts at farming. From your 20’s to your 60’s, you get 40 seasons. But in AgTech, you get 40 attempts in a week!

But even farmland isn’t immune to the information revolution. Today, there are hundreds of agriculture tech startups around the world, and some experts say the situation reminds them of the early days of the internet: There’s a lot of activity in agriculture, but no clear winners yet – it’s hard to say who might become the Facebook or Amazon of the scene. Couple that with climate change pressures, the fact that two billion more people will live on this planet by 2050, and that just 40% of the world’s land is available to grow crops, and you have yourself a market ripe for innovation — and big money.

Joining us will be:

Alastair Smith. Alastair works for KHULA! App where he is the Executive Head, Fresh Produce Market Place. He graduated with a B.Agric Admin from Stellenbosch University as well as a Certificate in Business Functions from Rhodes Business School. He has also completed the Prince of Wales’s Business and Sustainability Executive Program through the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability.

With a range of varied Agri Business experience, Alastair sees himself as a positive disruptor with over 19 years of business management experience in supply chain in agri-business, retail, FMCG and most recently, in the tech start-up environment.

Martin Jensen. Martin currently Leads the IT Team at ZZ2 who are tasked with the ambitious project of digitising and optimising processes within the ZZ2 ecosystem.

He holds a BSc. IT (Hons) Degree from the University of Johannesburg and in a career spanning 20 years, Martin has held positions at large corporations such as Shoprite and Imperial Logistics as well as numerous entrepreneurial ventures including start-ups. He has held various positions in the IT & Supply Chain space in different industries including retail, logistics, aquaculture and agriculture. 

Greg Whitaker. Greg was born in Polokwane, Limpopo and grew up on a farm outside Louis Trichardt, before moving to Pretoria for his high school years. After matriculating, Greg studied at Stellenbosch University and then moved to Johannesburg in 2012 where he worked in the logistics industry. Greg founded AgrigateOne in 2018 where he presently works as the CEO.

The hugely regarded Blue Skies business has teamed up with Waitrose and the University of Northampton Centre for Sustainable Business Practices to launch an industry research and development hub to find ground-breaking solutions to sustainability challenges, with an initial focus on plastics.

We go live with them to find out more and to speak to a select number of industry experts on the subject.

On the panel we have:

Caroline Drummond MBE – CEO of LEAF

Simon Derek – Global Head of Sustainability, Blue Skies  

Jim Jefcoate – Ex Walmart and ex GlobalG.A.P.  

Ian Schofield – Ex Iceland & Highly Regarded Packaging expert

The Fresh Produce Impact Hub, known as FRESHPPACT, will collaborate with retailers, manufacturers and agribusinesses operating within food supply chains rooted in developing or emerging economies to identify shared high-priority social and environmental challenges, and work with research partners to accelerate the adoption of the most promising solutions through a process of rapid evaluation, testing and adoption.  

FRESHPPACT is being implemented by Blue Skies and supported by Waitrose, which has been awarded a UKAid grant to develop the operating model and launch three challenge funds to find solutions to problem plastics found in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Solutions may include new technology and business models that mitigate plastic pollution through material substitution, accelerated biodegradation and improved manufacturing and remanufacturing processes.

The UKAid grant has been made via the Sustainable Manufacturing and Pollution Programme (SMEP). The SMEP programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and is implemented in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The grant has been awarded for an initial period until April 2022. 

FRESHPPACT is inviting expressions of interest from organisations who would like to be involved in launching the challenge funds and/or identifying solutions. Expressions of Interest may come from, but is not limited to retailers, fresh produce companies, research organisations (including universities) and solutions providers.

Teresa Wickham, produce doyenne and retail phenomenon, is the archetypal pioneer. In 1979 she declared war on French apples and co-founded the Women’s Farming Union, which ran a successful campaign to revitalise the UK fruit industry. By 1990 she was the first woman divisional director of UK retailer Safeway, where she developed the Strathclyde Food Project, bringing together farmers, growers, manufacturers and retailers to close the UK’s trade gap; and later became an adviser to Sainsbury’s board on their £1 billion corporate responsibility programme.

Since then, she has held numerous roles managing and developing areas of business, primarily in food, agribusiness and the retail industry, including governor of the Royal Agricultural College, chairman of the Oxford Farming Conference and non-executive director of New Covent Garden Market Authority. All culminating in the ‘Woman of the Decade in Food Farming and Innovation’ accolade, awarded in India by the Women’s Economic Forum in 2018.

Today, although no longer consulting and into her 70s, she continues to energise and influence the industry as president of the National Fruit Show (NFS), as member of the Harvard PAPSAC Committee, and as a regular broadcaster for the BBC on retail and consumer issues.

Wickham’s trail-blazing journey in produce began when she married Kent fruit farmer, Robin, at 21, having trained as a Cordon Bleu cook and just embarked on a teaching career at Le Cordon Bleu London. The transition to rural life in Brenchley in the late 1960s was nonetheless a joyful one for the young Wickham, the second-eldest of nine children to entrepreneurial Irish parents.

“A farm is such a lovely environment to live in. It was wonderful,” she says. “My husband worked for his father, growing every soft fruit and top fruit under the sun. My mother-in-law was Swedish and a fabulous horticulturalist. I worked on the farm and ran a 100-strong fruit picking team. It was idyllic, and my in-laws were hugely supportive.”

Women typically worked behind the scenes in English farming in those days, says Wickham. So, in 1979, when she and two female fruit-grower friends, Anne Humphreys and Margaret Charrington, decided to “declare war on French apples”, co-founded the Women’s Farming Union and organised mass protests in London and Brussels from her kitchen table, they hit national headlines.

“The UK had joined the European Common Market (EEC) and British apple growers hadn’t realised what impact that would have and were now under threat,” Wickham explains. “The large and well-organised French grower cooperatives could send their fruit to the UK without quotas, and Britain’s burgeoning supermarket sector was delighted to be able to procure such large volumes of homogenous fruit. The smaller-scale British growers, on the other hand, weren’t up on quality control and needed time to adjust. Meanwhile, British growers were convinced that French growers were getting financial help from their government, which under EEC rules was illegal.

“Anne, Margaret and I launched a campaign fighting French apples on several fronts,” she continues, speaking from her apple farm near Tonbridge that she helped save. “We gathered evidence that the French apple growers were indeed cheating and presented it to the MEPs; we set up a consumer campaign promoting British apples; we implemented two surveillance schemes – one at wholesale and one at retail level – where we recruited grower and consumer volunteers to monitor and report back on the quality and availability of British apples; and we organised [Women’s Farming Union] protests.

“Margaret was brilliant on TV, Anne had the ideas, and I led the demos,” Wickham adds with delightful nonchalance. “It was the early 80s, and people weren’t used to seeing farmers’ wives demonstrating, so we made The Nine O’Clock News and Not The Nine O’Clock News. We’d joke that, at school, my children would often say ‘Mummy can’t pick us up today because she’s protesting!’”

The trio’s apple campaign attracted women from other farming sectors and developed into a whole-scale movement involving some 3,000 members. “In the end, the entire produce industry pulled together,” says Wickham. “We were all concerned for our husbands’ livelihoods and our children’s future. We were fighting for our sector’s survival.”

Forty-two years later, and UK growers are once again in the throes of an existential crisis, wrestling the dark triad of Brexit-induced labour shortages, supermarket price deflation and rising production costs. Is this the end for British fruit growers? Wickham thinks not. “Things are very challenging for people now and I’m not certain the government really appreciates the effect of the worker shortage,” she says. “But I see huge opportunities for the horticulture sector thanks to the huge public and private sector focus on getting the population to eat more fruit and veg.”

In her view, the produce sector needs to seize this chance and secure its future through greater industry cooperation, collaboration and communication. “The British fruit industry has still failed to build a brand, and brand adds huge value,” she says. “We tried to get the ‘Kingdom’ fruit brand going in the 1980s, but we failed. Growers need to really understand the market, which products work and why, and who their real consumer is.

“Growers also need to connect more with the end consumer, to engage them,” Wickham continues. “They’ve got to find a message that consumers feel strongly about, and they’ve got to get the consumer to understand the value of their fruit and veg without lecturing them. The difference from 42 years ago is the impact of the digital age and the opportunities this provides to communicate direct with consumers. 

“The produce sector is still a bit siloed,” Wickham adds. “You’ve got ADHB, BAPL, National Fruit Show, British Summer Fruits. But they should all be working together to raise the profile of all UK produce.

“I think there are huge challenges, but agritech will help both with sustainable production and hopefully the labour problem, so the sector does have a good future.”

Wickham is buoyed by the sight of a new generation of bright young people joining the industry via multiple routes, and says she feels tremendous pride that, today, women hold some of the top jobs in British agriculture, Defra minister Victoria Prentis, NFU president Minette Batters and BAPL chair Ali Capper to name three.

“I think it’s amazing,” she says. “It’s great to see what they are doing. Women offer a different perspective and are very good at juggling. It’s in their nature.”

Although she gave up her consultancy business three years ago, Wickham continues to multi-task daily. In between her NFS stewardship and BBC commentating, she mentors small food-business owners, is an active member of agri-business thinktank the Rural Policy Group, and is writing a book for her grandchildren on her apple-war years.

“My focus is helping the next generation,” she says. “I don’t think you ever retire in this industry. You just do what you want to do rather than what you have to do. My job now is opening doors for people.”

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

On this broadcast we discuss the workplace - "It’s not a problem it’s a cure - Driving equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace". We are joined by:

Sharon Blyfield OBE, Head of Early Careers and Apprenticeships GB. Sharon has been in the business for 28 years in a variety of functions and roles. She joined the HR team 17 years ago, covering all elements of Supply Chain and now heading up the Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Early Careers agenda for Great Britain.

Having spent the majority of her career developing young talent at the start of their careers, her current remit fits perfectly with her passion to create opportunities to support the next generation of young leaders. As part of her commitment, Sharon strives to work with strategic partners who challenge organisation’s approach to under representation of young people across all communities and works to create a level playing field in the recruitment process that might unconsciously deselect from those groups.

Sharon’s dedication and commitment to CCEP’s apprenticeship programme has been recognised by CCEP’s leadership team, as well as her peers and apprentices alike. She has received praise for her outstanding leadership of the programme, which has continued to grow and expand in line with the business’ Early Careers agenda. As well as recognition from the leadership team, Sharon is adored by the apprentices themselves, who see her as a trusted advisor and mentor.

Sharon joined the HR team 17 years ago, covering all elements of HR and now heads up the Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Early Careers agenda for Great Britain.

Having spent the majority of her career developing young talent at the start of their careers, her current remit fits perfectly with her passion to create opportunities to support the next generation of young leaders.

Barbara Bray MBE, Food Safety Expert & Nutrition Strategist For The Food Industry. Barbara is a TEDx speaker and director of her own consultancy, Alo Solutions Ltd, delivering food safety and developing sustainable nutrition strategies for food businesses.

A Registered Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition, she has an MSc in Human Nutrition. She is a Fellow of the Institute for Food Science and Technology (IFST) with a BSc in Food Technology and an MSc in Postharvest Technology.

The Co-Chair of the Oxford Farming Conference, trustee of the Nutrition Society and 2017 Nuffield Farming Scholar, Barbara is passionate about diet and food. She was awarded an MBE in 2019 for services to food and nutrition.

“Women in Food and Farming” is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

Beanstalk is very proud to offer our extensive platforms to allow Women in Food and Farming to continue their conversation and debate and to encourage new members ongoing to join them, be that on a virtual Broadcast basis.

In our February Broadcast, we are delighted to have Sapphira Waterson - COO of Management Development Services.

Saffy utilises her skills in people development to help individuals find their best fit in the food and fresh produce industry. Sapphira has many years of experience working within people development as well as a career in welfare and social work, including the Probation Service and prior to that working for SSAFA with the RAF. She has a Bsc in Criminal Justice studies and a BA in Social Science and Social Policy.

She will be discussing with us all – “Socioeconomic bias and the effects on professional opportunities”.

When we think of Socioeconomic status (SES) most people consider income and an individual ability to live a lifestyle based on their financial status. However, the effects are far more extensive and impact educational achievement, social status and opportunity to reach professional attainment. This is not necessarily because of an individual’s ability or potential but often due to the unconscious bias of those at a higher level.

Generally, people believe they do not hold discriminatory beliefs, but in reality, we all do, because we are influenced by social stereotypes which categorise individuals or groups. Greater awareness can enable us to make positive changes to processes and actively offer equal opportunities. This will never be achieved if we continue to assess potential based on criteria that many people have not had the opportunity to experience.

GLOBALG.A.P. is a brand of smart farm assurance solutions developed by FoodPLUS GmbH in Cologne, Germany, with cooperation from producers, retailers, and other stakeholders from across the food industry. These solutions include a range of standards for safe, socially, and environmentally responsible farming practices. The most widely used GLOBALG.A.P. standard is Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA), applicable for fruit and vegetables, aquaculture, floriculture, livestock, and more. This standard also forms the basis for the GGN label: The consumer label for certified, responsible farming and transparency.

The GLOBALG.A.P. brand began its journey as EUREPGAP in 1997. Two decades later, over 200,000 producers are under GLOBALG.A.P. certification in 134 countries. Nearly 150 team members around the world are dedicated to the mission of spreading responsible farming practices to ensure safe food for future generations.

Beanstalk Global looks to find out more about the workings of GLOBALG.A.P and its positive future direction and how that will benefit everyone in the fresh food international food supply chain with Dr. Kristian Moeller – Managing Director.

Kristian has been directing GLOBALG.A.P. since its foundation more than 20 years ago. Their collective vision is to create a world in which farms are recognized for their efforts to continuously produce enough safe food while safeguarding our environment and the welfare of farming communities. They collaborate with supply chain stakeholders to foster the global adoption of safe, socially, and environmentally responsible farming practices by providing industry-leading, cost-effective, and value-adding assurance and benchmarking solutions.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our December broadcast, we are delighted to have expert coach and consultant: Nick Davies to discuss Negotiation: How to Get the Result You Want 

Nick is the author of ‘How to be Great at the Stuff You Hate: the straight-talking guide to persuading, selling & networking’. He is also a trainer of Communication Skills to Members of The Royal Household and a visiting Lecturer at University College Dublin Smurfit Business School, Dublin.

He is also the co-founder and director of the training, coaching and consulting company Tricres Ltd.

Whilst his background is in field and retail sales (as well as being called to the Bar in November 1999) and briefly working as a lawyer) he has been a trainer and speaker since 2006.

Over the years he has accumulated a wealth of experience, training and teaching lawyers, accountants, fund managers, senior managers & civil servants, from the exceptionally junior to the incredibly senior how to sell, persuade, close, speak, present, negotiate, network and develop business, either one-to-one or in large groups.

Although the majority of this work has taken place in the U.K., he has been lucky enough to speak across the globe, including amazing places such as: Monaco, Antibes, The Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Singapore, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Wellington, Auckland West Virginia, Beijing & Southport.

Nick performed stand-up for ten years and continues to deliver after-dinner speeches and host award ceremonies. Over the past few years he has worked and shared stages with a buffet of reasonably well-known people; including The Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo, Sir Digby Jones, Jenny Bond, Kate Adie, Roger Black MBE, Alan Hansen, and Alastair Campbell.

All of us are living in a global climate crisis. Our planet is warming fast. Luckily, there is a solution: If nature is brought back by applying cost-effective nature-based solutions, we can mitigate global warming by 37%! This will benefit nature, biodiversity, and people everywhere, and help cool down our planet. Justdiggit is on a mission to regreen Africa and cool down the planet. Together with millions of farmers, and together with you.

Joining Max on the broadcast is Stuart Taylor. After a 35-year career in the UK media sector, Stuart now devotes his time to tackling the climate crisis as UK Country Director for Dutch environmental foundation Justdiggit.

He is a former UK CEO of Kinetic Worldwide, the world’s leading out-of-home media planning and buying agency and part of WPP. Prior to this, and until its sale to Global Radio, Stuart was CEO of Guardian Media Group Radio (GMG Radio) and sat on the board of parent group, GMG Plc. He has been Non-Exec Director for several organisations including micro-mobility start-up Buzzbikes.

He sat on the boards of Digital Radio UK, RadioPlayer, and Radio Centre. Stuart joined GMG Radio after a long career at Guardian News and Media, where he was Commercial Director. Responsible for all commercial activity at GNM, Stuart played a major role in developing online revenue streams for guardian.com and the transformation of both the Guardian and the Observer newspapers into the innovative Berliner format.

He was appointed Commercial Director of GNM in 2004 and was named Sales Director of the Year on three occasions by Campaign magazine and was a founding director and Chair of the Newspaper Marketing Agency, now called Newsworks.