After a difficult harvest heaped further pressure on profit margins, farms are being encouraged to cut costs, collaborate and diversify. EDP Agricultural Editor Chris Hill met with AF Chief Executive Officer Helen Whittle and Chief Agricultural Officer John Barrett.
Smarter decisions to maximise assets, cut costs and find new revenue streams can help farms survive in an increasingly tough economic landscape.
That was the message from the new senior team leading Norfolk-based agricultural purchasing group AF, in a year which has illustrated the significant financial challenges facing the industry.
This year's patchy harvest - with many arable yields hit by drought and heatwaves - is one example of the impact of factors ranging from extreme weather and volatile commodity prices to government policy upheaval and subsidy withdrawals.
To cope with this, collaboration and diversification are among the strategies being promoted at AF, based in Honingham Thorpe outside Norwich.
Chief Executive Helen Whittle was appointed in April after stepping up from her previous role as Chief Procurement Officer, having joined AF in 2019.
She said the business had changed dramatically in those six years, as it reacted to corresponding changes on farms as they sought new revenue streams.
While also negotiating better prices for sourcing the traditional farming needs for seeds, fertiliser and fuel, she said AF buyers now also have to meet increasingly diverse requirements for tourism, renewable energy and leisure ventures.
"If you look at most industries, most businesses, they are either diversifying or consolidating," she said. "We have already collaborated with other buying groups and the reason we are continuing to look at that is to enhance our buying power.
"It is really tough out there for farmers, and also for us. We really need to concentrate our negotiating power and get better deals and add more value for our Members.
"But it is also much more diverse now. When I joined we called ourselves a farming buying group, but I think we are much more than that. We would really class ourselves as a rural business organisation now.
"Our farming Members now deal with golf courses, wedding venues and holiday homes, and going back a few years the farming community would not have looked at that.
"We had a good one recently when somebody rang in and wanted 20 Agas {range cookers], because they were diversifying into holiday homes. The most interesting one we ever had was we were asked if we could procure a gold-plated hockey stick. That sticks in my mind, even six years on, and I don't think we have ever been asked that again."
AF sources products including 160,000 tonnes of fertiliser, 17,000 tonnes of cereal and pulse seeds, £20m of animal feed and 90m litres of fuel each year. it employs around 100 people and has a turnover of £285m.
Mrs Whittle said there is now a "big focus on growth" and becoming more "agile" and proactive in responding to the needs of its 3,000 Members across the country.
This includes introducing a new customer service hub to deal with day-to-day enquiries and refer calls to product specialists if needed. AF is also hosting an open day for its Members on November 13th.
Another recent appointment is chief agricultural officer John Barrett, who brings hands-on farming experience to AF's senior leadership team as a former director of farming company Sentry, where he had worked for 28 years.
"As a farm business, when times are tough one of the things you try to do is control your costs," he said. "That is where we come in.
"In a year like this, because it was such a dry spring, what people are buying is very different to 2024 when it was a wet year and very difficult to control crop disease. We have to react to that. The demand has gone through the roof for some products, and dropped like a stone for others. That is why we need to work with the distributors and the manufacturers.
"You can also look at diversification. Farms have assets, and you need to decide what to do with your assets.
"You need to be smarter about how you get cash into the business. As Helen said, you have got to be agile.
"Solar panels and battery storage are growing massively, and people are looking to invest in small wind turbines, infrastructure, reservoirs, lagoons for slurry - all sorts of longer-term capital plans to help reduce costs. It is investment for the future.
"Farmers are very resilient and there has been huge variance in yields for this harvest. There are going to be some really difficult decisions and times ahead.
"But the people which have invested in the infrastructure of their business will be able to cope much better."
Hill, C. 2025. 'Smarter' decisions can help farms survive tough times. Eastern Daily Press, Autumn Agricultural Review, page 2. 12th September.
Image credit: Eastern Daily Press
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