Aldi has pledged its support to the Fund’s flagship scheme, The Prince’s Farm Resilience Programme, which is designed to help family-farm businesses improve their prospects.
Aldi’s donation will support upland beef and lamb family farms to improve their skills and knowledge of business management. This will be delivered through a series of workshops hosted by expert consultants on effective day-to-day management of their business, with topics including record keeping, succession planning, and understanding finance and accounts.
The programme also brings disconnected and remotely-located farmers together to share best practice and build local networks. Participating farms will benefit from one-to-one on farm advice on their specific situations and implementing improvements.
Launched in July 2016, and now entering its third year, the programme is designed to offer free business support for more than 1,300 family farms by 2020, improving their confidence and ability to run long-term and sustainable businesses. It is the only scheme of its kind intended to help vulnerable family farms in the UK.
Fritz Walleczek, managing director of corporate responsibility at Aldi UK, said: “Supporting British farming is something we have always done at Aldi. Teaming up with The Prince’s Countryside Fund to support the vital work of its Farm Resilience Programme is a natural extension of that.
“By working directly with family-run farms across the UK, Aldi and The Prince’s Countryside Fund not only helps famers to do better business but also to safeguard the future sustainability of the British farming industry.”
Claire Saunders, director of The Prince’s Countryside Fund said: “We are very pleased that Aldi is supporting The Prince’s Farm Resilience Programme, a sector leading initiative which helps vulnerable family farms to make the most of their business. It is terrific that Aldi are so keen to support British farming and rural communities and we are very appreciative of their backing.”
The donation is the latest example of Aldi’s commitment to supporting British farming. The supermarket was the first signatory of the NFU’s Fruit & Veg Pledge and its entire core range of fresh meat and milk is from British farms.
On a global scale, Aldi became the first UK supermarket to team up with Farm Africa, the international development charity, in June 2016 with a three-year partnership to support young farmers in Kenya.
