Red Tractor’s CEO Jim Moseley has announced he will retire from full-time employment next April, after nine years heading up the farm assurance scheme.
Moseley – who boasts a 50-year career in food and drink – said he planned to focus on roles that gave him more time to focus on family and his personal life.
A former MD of Mizkan Euro and General Mills in the UK, Moseley also worked as interim director general of the Food & Drink Federation between 2014 and 2015, and as chair of Red Tractor for two years before his appointment as CEO in 2017.
His other high-profile roles include serving as chair of the Provision Trade Federation, a member of Food Drink Europe, and as an industry representative of various government groups including the Trade & Agriculture Commission.
“I will leave Red Tractor in a strong position to support the future of British food and farming, with a board, a leadership team and tremendous employees who have the skills, knowledge, experience and dedication to carry Red Tractor forward,” Moseley said.
“Assurance is not an easy occupation, but the team at Red Tractor deliver their roles with huge professionalism and extraordinary resilience,” he added. “This team is one of the strongest I have had the pleasure of working with. Red Tractor’s recognition by the World Health Organization as a ‘global exemplar of a voluntary assurance programme’ is testament to their abilities and the quality of the scheme.”
Red Tractor chair Alistair Mackintosh said Moseley had made an “extraordinary contribution to Red Tractor and British food and farming”.
Consumer trust in British food was at record levels, as were the number of retailers, caterers and brands relying on Red Tractor assurance, he pointed out.
“The influence that Red Tractor has in securing markets and demand for British produce should not be underestimated.”
He will remain in post for the remainder of the 2025/26 financial year, “enabling time for the recruitment of a new chief executive while Red Tractor continues to focus on its current priorities, including delivering the recommendations set out in the recent Farm Assurance Review”, the scheme said.
Moseley has, of late, presided over the scheme during a particularly turbulent period.
The industry-wide independent Farm Assurance Review was instigated in the wake of Red Tractor’s ultimately failed bid to launch a sustainably-focused module called the Greener Farms Commitment in October 2023.
The retailer-backed, voluntary initiative led to outrage from farmers over Red Tractor’s lack of consultation with the sector over the module’s introduction – leading it to have to abandon its plans in March 2024.
“Jim will leave an organisation which is highly motivated, financially sound and well governed,” added Mackintosh.
“On behalf of Red Tractor’s board of directors, I’d like to thank him for his unrelenting support for British food production. I’m very grateful for Jim’s support as we continue to deliver real, tangible change for farmers, while recruiting a new chief executive.”
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