Suffolk Food Hall named Champion of Champions by Countryside Alliance
Suffolk Food Hall saw off competition from the UK and Ireland’s best retailers to win a special 10th anniversary Countryside Alliance Award Champion of Champions prize.
The farm shop, which is based at Wherstead near Ipswich, was named Champion in the Local Food category and owner Oliver Paul collected the award at the Houses of Parliament from Environment Secretary Liz Truss MP.
The award was contested by all of the awards’ previous champions, which were put before a public vote of more than 35,000 people to determine the winner.
“The thing that makes us special is the number of fantastic food producers in our area of Suffolk,” said Oliver Paul. “We have 360 suppliers and around 80% of those are from the Ipswich postcode. We turn over around £3.5million a year and £2million goes back to local suppliers.”
Suffolk Food Hall, which first won the Local Food title in 2011, was one of several winners at the ceremony held on February 4.
Shropshire rare breed farm and farm shop Park Hill Farm (Enterprise), Co Kildare butcher Nolan’s of Kilcullen (Traditional Business) and Ludwell Stores of Dorset (Village Shop/ Post Office) were all named Champion of Champions in their categories.
Meanwhile, Berwickshire’s organic meat specialist Peelham Farm won the second Clarissa Dickson Wright Award.
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