Introducing the Farm Business Awards from the Addington Fund
At the Addington Fund, we have a proud and strong history in the South West of England. In Cornwall alone you’ll find more than a third of our houses. Since our inception in 2001 and the disaster of Foot and Mouth, it was clear that Cornwall would always be a major focus for our charitable work.
Cornwall Farm Business Awards
Cornwall is unique. It is a very diverse farming county where, unlike most other regions, virtually all our enterprises continue to flourish, from sheep farming on Bodmin Moor to the supply of fresh produce from the Cornish Riviera. Between those two extremes are traditional arable farms, early potatoes, the bulb market and established dairies like Rodda’s, Trewithen and Davidstow.
Not only this, Cornish farmers have a proud reputation for being highly entrepreneurial; always looking to diversify not only into tourism but also into farm processing, from vegetable packing to cheese making.
In 2010, we decided it was time to recognise and celebrate the success of the farming industry in this most resilient county and so we launched the Cornwall Farm Business Awards. With our close association with the Royal Cornwall Show and the Riddle family, it made sense to hold these on the showground itself at Wadebridge.
We are grateful to our sponsors who queue up to support the awards in which every area of farming is covered in the various categories. We also crown an overall winner Cornwall’s ‘Farmer of the Year’, a very sought-after title with many illustrious winners.
As a charity, we always recognise those who make an outstanding contribution in other ways to the County’s farming industry as ‘Farming Champion’.
We are extremely grateful to Cornwall’s farmers and supporting businesses who are always very generous towards the Addington Fund. While the awards evening is always a helpful fundraiser for the charity, we can also promise you a fantastic and well-deserved night out.
Devon Farm Business Awards
As many farmers have told us, Devon is as wide as it is long, and it is a rich and proud farming county. The Addington Fund is very active in Devon and Trevor Glasper runs our South West office from near Seaton.
Following the success of the Cornwall Awards, it made perfect sense to launch a similar event at the Devon Showground in Westpoint near Exeter. Once again, with fantastic support from the Devon Show Committee and the supportive staff at Westpoint allowing us to use the President’s Marquee the night before the show in May, the first Devon Farm Business Awards was held in 2014.
It too recognised the main farming activities in this very productive county and the successful ancillary businesses associated with the farming enterprises. Today, the awards are well established and supported by the area’s finest businesses – helping to get the Devon County Show off to a flying start.
Always a sell-out, the winners leave the awards ceremony with a spring in their step and the overall winner is crowned the coveted title of Devon’s ‘Farmer of the Year’.
Devonians are very generous by nature and support Addington well. We expect our activities in this important agricultural county to grow, with some potentially exciting projects in the pipeline.
What next?
We are looking forward to launching more Farming Awards in other counties too and, if they are as successful as the ones we already run, they will go on celebrating all that is great in farming and its associated stories of inspiring success.
It does please us greatly when many of our winners go on to be rightly recognised at the industry’s biggest national award ceremonies.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our events soon.
Sue English
Director, Addington Fund