Press Releases 2008

17 June 2008

Our Family Profiles:
Food Exhibitor (Shropshire)

A fast growing Shropshire farm-to-fork meat business will be taking its pork, beef and lamb to tempt visitors to the Royal Show this year.

No-one will be keener to grab the consumers’ attention at the Show this year than the Yapp brothers, Mark and Chris, of Castlemoor Farm Meats. And with their ability to roast up to three pigs at once, no-one is better equipped!
They will be selling their specialist ‘Hog Roast’ to hundreds of hungry customers – demonstrating the catering arm of their business.

Their approach really reflects the spirit of the Royal Show, which runs from July 3rd to 6th at Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth Warwickshire. It offers an ideal opportunity for consumers to find out more about where their food comes from. As consumers increasingly seek out local produce, it is good to see exhibitors like Castlemoor Farm Meats creating better local awareness of its products – saving food miles and encouraging local enterprise.

Castlemoor Farm is a family run business off the beaten track in the Corvedale
between much Wenlock and Ludlow. The brothers provide local meat, reared on their own farm and slaughtered as locally as possible. The farm supports a herd of Hereford and Angus suckler cows, a small herd of Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spot pigs and a flock of Suffolk and Texel cross sheep. All animals are fed on home produced cereal rations, silage and straw.

This is the second year that Castlemoor Farm Meats will be exhibiting at the Royal Show – following the win of the 'Diversification from Farming to Butchery’ award last year.

The losses of the last foot-and-mouth outbreak and a rugby injury (for Chris) were just some of the factors leading to the decision for brothers to diversify and sell their produce directly to the public.

Now in its fifth year of selling directly, the business is going from strength to strength. It now encompasses a shop within the local market at Shrewsbury, attendance at farmers’ markets as well as supplying produce to various local delicatessens and restaurants. In 2007, the Yapp brothers moved into the public sector, winning a contract to supply over half of the schools in Shropshire.

Mark believes the Royal Show is one of the last genuine agricultural shows and enables the team to meet with customers past, present and future – whilst showcasing the Castlemoor range to a nationwide audience.

Food and drink buyers will have two main ports of call at the Show with a large and varied Farmers Market outside and a specialist Food Hall under cover which has a wide array of food to eat on the day or to take home and stock the freezer.

To find out more about Castlemoor Farm Meats. call Mark Yapp on 01746 712353 or visit www.castlemoorfarmmeats.co.uk

- Ends -

For further media information contact:

Naomi Barry
The Ceres Partnership
T: 01189 475956
M: 07920 098498
E: naomi.barry@ceres-pr.co.uk

Simon Frere-Cook
Director, Royal Show & Technical Events
T: 02476 858282
E: simonf@rase.org.uk

Notes for editor

The Royal Show is organised by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE). RASE is an independent charity with over 6,000 members including the general public and the farming community. RASE works towards a sustainable, vibrant future for British Agriculture and the rural community.

For more information about RASE, please contact: 02476 696969 or visit the website www.rase.org.uk