Robin Edwards

Oxford Mail:

CLA South East Regional Director

Loyalty towards local producers of food, drink and other items is an important contributor to the rural economy in Oxfordshire and as we approach the festive season, when we focus on buying the best quality food and produce we can, there’s no reason not to think local.

Before you rush to the supermarket or go online to buy your Christmas food and drinks, decorations or presents, have a look at the wide range of products which are grown, reared, processed or made right here in the county.

Oxfordshire offers a wide selection of locally grown or reared festive produce, from farm shops, such as Wykham Park Farm Shop near Banbury or the county’s many farmers markets.

There are ales from Hook Norton Brewery or wines from the Brightwell Vineyard, near Wallingford, and a wealth of local art and craft businesses providing a rich source of gift opportunities.

You can choose your Christmas tree from local growers including the aptly named Christmas Common near Watlington, which this year supplied the Christmas tree for 10 Downing Street after winning the British Christmas Tree Growers’ Association’s annual competition.

You could say, we have almost everything you could need for your festive celebrations, right on the doorstep.

The CLA, which represents landowners, farmers and rural businesses, provides a wide range of advice and guidance to farmers and landowners in Oxfordshire, helping them diversify in ways that are helpful to their business, perhaps through setting up farm shops, developing holiday lettings or specialist food and drink production.

We also work with national and local government to help ensure that food producers are not weighed down by unnecessary regulation and have access to funding.

Our campaigns to improve access to faster broadband in rural areas and to end discrimination in the tax system against unincorporated family businesses are also important in supporting the sector’s future growth.

For many food producers, storage is an important issue, if they are to meet demand for high quality stocks of fruit, vegetables and other produce all year round.

This sometimes means building new facilities or significantly upgrading existing ones and this can only be achieved if there is recognition from planners that storage and processing of locally-sourced food needs to happen close to where it is grown.

Minimising mileage from field to store is not just about reducing the product’s carbon footprint.

It also helps maintain the quality of crops which can be damaged by protracted transport and delays in reaching cold storage. Similarly, food processing facilities need to be located close to the farms, not on the edge of town or an industrial estate miles away.

Local farming and food producing businesses can be highly labour intensive and providing facilities for their continued growth and success will also keep those job opportunities in rural areas, where they are needed.

Small, independent businesses are the lifeblood of the rural economy.

If we want to continue to enjoy the best seasonal, locally-made produce on our doorstep, we all need to support farm shops and farmers’ markets as well as buying direct from our Oxfordshire producers or local stores.

It is vital to support our rural businesses all year round, but Christmas is a great time to start.