Framptons supplier Robin Appel has partnered with sustainability platform Soil Association Exchange to meet the ever-growing demand for environmental performance data from processors and brands.
The agreement will see 15 of the grain trader’s farms measured across six impact areas: carbon, soil, water, biodiversity, animal welfare and social. The assessments will provide a baseline score for each farm. Growers will then receive one-to-one support from an independent advisor to help improve their performance, alongside a group workshop at Robin Appel’s Fisherton site, according to Soil Association Exchange.
The announcement comes as farmers have been battered by extreme heat and dry weather, with the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) predicting that this year’s harvest could be one of the five worst since 1984.
In the case of this year’s oat harvest, which is 32% complete, AHDB has put the estimated average yield at 4.9 tonnes per hectare, 0.5 tonnes below the 10-year average.
“The brands we supply want to know in real detail that the crop behind them is grown well and grown to last,” said Robin Appel trading director Tom Wood.
“There’s a lot of loose talk about sustainability in our industry and we weren’t interested in green window-dressing. We backed this because it’s genuinely rigorous: whole-farm measurement plus independent advice our growers can trust.”
“That credibility is exactly what our customers are asking for and it’s good for the farmer, the brand and the long-term resilience of British oats.”
With poor harvests in 2024 and 2025 wiping out production equivalent to 13% of England’s wheat, barley and oat area, according to the ECIU, Soil Association Exchange sales manager Mike Bond said Robin Appel was “rising to that challenge”.
“This is exactly the kind of supply chain leadership we want to see,” he said. “Robin Appel has recognised the need to measure and provide farm-level data and how this will add value to the whole supply chain.”
Bond added: “With a key processor and brands in support, this is a great initiative supporting their supplying farmers. The Exchange metrics provide scientifically rigorous data and by pairing this insight with independent expert advice for each farm, we can turn that measurement into change on the ground.”
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