Twenty to Forty Times
The single arithmetic fact that explains the whole structure of this estate.
- Subject
- The numbers
- Published
- 2025-05-14
Feed barley leaves a farm at somewhere between a hundred and fifty and two hundred pounds a tonne. The same barley, malted, brewed, bottled and sold as lager, is worth roughly twenty to forty times that.
That multiple is why the brewery exists. Hawkstone turned over £21.3 million in the year to March 2025, having almost tripled from £7.8 million, with a three-year average growth rate of 134 per cent. The farming that produced the barley made £144 in its first year.
The same principle runs through everything else here. Potatoes with no buyer became a farm shop. Mushrooms and wild garlic that grow uninvited became a crisp sold only by the twenty-four box at £37.40. Blackberries from the hedge became jam at £4.80.
The value in British agriculture has moved downstream, into processing, retail, hospitality and brand. A farm that does not follow it there is selling raw material into a market that has already decided what it is worth, and that market is not sentimental.
Subject
The numbers
Published
2025-05-14
Written by
Somebody who was there
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