WHO I WORK WITH

Six parts of the northern food chain

The problems differ between a pig unit, a fish merchant and a furniture importer, but they sit in the same place: between buying an input and being paid for the output. Each page below sets out what I see in that sector, where I would start, and what I have written about it.

Sheep grazing beneath a tree by a farmhouse and dry-stone wall near York

Livestock and feed

Feed, inputs, animal performance, cash and haulage: where a livestock margin goes.

Where I would start: Livestock cost of production review

Dairy plant beside the River Ribble at Settle, North Yorkshire

Food manufacturing and wholesale

Stock rising faster than sales, and an office rebuilding the same reports every month.

Where I would start: Supply Chain Diagnostic

Aerial view of a tractor working an arable field near Wakefield, Yorkshire

Fresh produce and arable

Losses between the field and the lorry, and a harvest planned from memory.

Where I would start: Field-to-dispatch loss review

Stone field barn and dry-stone walls on a Yorkshire Dales hillside

Family farming groups and estates

Several companies, one family, and money moving between them that nobody can see.

Where I would start: Group diagnostic

Fishing boats moored in Arbroath harbour, Scotland

Seafood and chilled food

Short shelf life, uneven landings and a cold chain that costs more than it records.

Where I would start: Cold chain and spoilage review

Log stacks at Kenmuir Sawmill, Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway

Timber and imported goods

Proving where the wood came from, product by product and batch by batch.

Where I would start: Deforestation regulation readiness

Food sacks and equipment stacked in an aid warehouse at Dadaab, Kenya

FURTHER AFIELD

Humanitarian and development

Funding cut, need unchanged, and a supply chain expected to deliver more for less. The same commercial discipline, applied to aid and development supply chains in East Africa.

Where I would start: Cost per tonne delivered

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