Cambridgeshire grower Clem Tompsett is the inaugural winner of the Best Innovation in the Food Chain Award at the NFU Farming Excellence Awards, sponsored by Marks & Spencer.
Tompsett, managing director of Tompsett Burgess Growers, won the award for developing and growing purple carrots. He first started to develop the purple carrot five years ago in private trials on his farm and brought them to market just last year.
Carrots were originally purple until Dutch growers patriotically developed an orange variety which soon became the most common variety. Tompsett's idea was to re-introduce purple carrots as a fun way of encouraging children to eat more vegetables.
NFU president Tim Bennett said: "Clem demonstrates admirably that in the increasingly competitive world that we live in today, innovation is the driving factor in many success stories in British farming."
Clem was presented with a cheque for £1,000, a certificate and a brass farm gate plaque. Runner-up Guy Poskitt of MH Poskitt Ltd received £200 for adapting his business so that it is now able to produce carrots 52 weeks a year.
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