Potato farmer begins spud home-delivery service

3 hours ago

John DevineRamsey

News image — Luke Abblitt says his home deliveries of potatoes has gone "mad" and he plans to start a mail order scheme in the coming weeks

Luke Abblitt Luke Abblitt has a dark beard and moustache and is wearing a black hoodie, with the hood down. Behind him is a conveyor of potatoes straight from the field — Luke Abblitt says his home deliveries of potatoes has gone "mad" and he plans to start a mail order scheme in the coming weeks

A fourth-generation farmer has taken a direct approach to shift his potatoes by taking orders via social media and delivering the crop to customers' homes.

Luke Abblitt runs a 400-acre arable Cambridgeshire County Council farm in Ramsey, near Huntingdon, and started his delivery service last December.

He says he has more than 200 tonnes of Sagitta potatoes to clear and has so far delivered more than 25 tonnes of spuds to customers.

Produce has been delivered to Peterborough, Huntingdon, March, Chatteris and the area's surrounding villages.

John Devine/BBC Various machinery in a farm barn with unmade cardboard boxes and tape visible, there is also an old fashioned weighing machine on the left. — Abblitt says he signs every bag of potatoes as a guarantee of their quality

Abblitt said he was inspired to sell directly to the customer by David Wheatley, a farmer from Wisbech, who recently started to mill and sell his own flour after being unable to sell an excess of wheat grain.

"I started in December with a thought that if I could offload about a tonne of spuds a month, I'd be happy but people have really embraced it," Abblitt said.

"I operate in a 10-mile radius from my farm and have hundreds of customers, I sell 25kg, 12.5kg and 5kg of Sagitta spuds," he added.

Although he started farming in 2011, Abblitt said he has "never had to face to public".

John Devine/BBC A magnetic sign on the side of a 4x4 vehicle that reads "Farmer Luke's Potatoes". It shows a cartoon image of Luke eating a bag of chips. — Abblitt currently uses a 4x4 vehicle to delivery his potatoes but adds a transit van is on his wish list to maximise deliveries

Abblitt said he has had to pull a calculator out on a regular basis to try and work out how to send potatoes through the post at an affordable cost to the consumer.

"I'm selling a low-cost product whereas the haulage or postage is going to cost more than the product itself - but I'm hoping to supply a 15kg sack of potatoes for £17.50, including P&P," he said.

He added the scheme had been so successful he planned to launch a mail order service - so anyone in the country can try his spuds.

The National Farmers' Union of England and Wales said potato growers who do not have contracts can have issues selling produce that has been in storage for a period of time as it can be seen as less desirable by retailers, but the potatoes were still good quality.

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