Farmer’s high-tech approach to get the country ready for Brexit
WE’VE heard about the stockpiling of medicines and warnings of chaos at Dover, but one Gloucestershire farmer is doing his bit to make sure food supplies are not hit too hard by Brexit.
With Britain’s departure from the European Union looming, Matthew Rymer and his company, Happerley, are working with the Government to ensure food from overseas can be traced and easily imported.
Happerley has been working tirelessly for the past five years to turn more and more food companies ‘Happerley transparent.’
If a company holds this provenance title, it means that the source of its product is absolutely clear, to the point where it can name what farm, and even what cow, it came from.
“Millennials, particularly, want transparency of product. Happerley is a hub for truth,” said Mr Rymer, who founded the company in 2014.
“We are providing a means for smaller, and bigger, businesses to digitalise their labels. We turn them Happerley transparent and give them a QR code that reveals a verified journey of their food.”
The Apperley-based company has gained major traction over the last five years, with well-known farmer and BBC Countryfile presenter Adam Henson being part of the advisory board.
Although Happerley has turned many British food and drink companies Happerley transparent, with many in Gloucestershire making up those hundreds, its business extends past the UK border.
The company works to turn Spanish farms that provide salad to supermarkets in the winter Happerley transparent, too.
“Saying on the label that the produce is coming from a certain country is not good enough; the consumer wants the whole truth – instantly – and on their phones,” said Mr Rymer.
At the moment, however, Happerley is focusing its work on the British border itself.
“We have been pulled into Government discussions very recently because they saw our phase two, that we’ve scoped and researched over these years, which is to apply block-chain technology and passport the actual ingredients,” Mr Rymer said.
“Our phase two involves passporting the actual foodstuff itself. Recognising that it all starts at seed or at birth, which is where all our food comes from.”
Happerley’s technology, which entails giving the food product a passport, or QR code, tells you everything you wish to know about the source of your food.
For example, if you were to buy beef that had been sourced from across the Irish border, you will be able to see what farm it was born on, and what slaughterhouse it went to.
It is hoped the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs will be releasing its data sets to Happerley, giving it all the animal and crop information that farmers supply.
“Then we will be dealing with the truth – the holy grail,” said Mr Rymer.
Happerley’s innovative passports mean that the crossing of Irish food products over the border will be much quicker.
With the support of the Irish government, the produce on the back of these lorries will be verified.
The exact source of these products will be able to be seen through scanning their QR passports and viewing the whole supply chain from seed or birth up.
“A truth is created and validated and secured through blockchain at each level,” Mr Rymer said. “If at one level that truth does not tally, then the passport will stop working.”
Because of the confidentiality of the Brexit discussions, he would not elaborate in any more detail, but it is not the first time the company’s work has been involved in something major.
Recently, Happerley featured heavily in the national press when a gourmet pub snack company founded by Tom Parker-bowles was found to use rind from foreign pigs, despite branding itself as ‘Great British Pork Crackling.’
Founded in 2011 by the Duchess of Cornwall’s son, Mr Trotter’s pork scratchings were produced in Staffordshire, using the British pig rind to create its ‘gourmet triple-cooked pub snack.’
The snack’s packaging displays an image of a large pig, looking the essence of Britishness in a Union Jack waistcoat, and sold in well-known shops such as Selfridges and Fortnum and Mason.
However, after an audit last year by Happerley, it was found that the scratchings were made using rind from the Danish Crown company, which sources its pork from the Netherlands and Germany.
Although the company said the reason for the sourcing of meat from abroad was due to the “diminishing size of the British pig herd”, it still sold the scratchings falsely, luring consumers into thinking that they were purchasing a purely British snack.
Happerley has had great support from the Midcounties Co-op, which has made it mandatory for the brands in their ‘Best of our Counties’ range to be Happerley transparent.
The company backs a lot of transparent Gloucestershire businesses, such as Wholly Gelato, The Cotswold Hare, and The Tewkesbury Mustard Company.
To see a full list of the businesses, based in Gloucestershire and beyond, that Happerley has turned Happerley transparent, visit the website at https:// happerley.co.uk/.
Saying on the label the produce is coming from a certain country is not good enough; the consumer wants the whole truth instantly and on phones Matthew Rymer