Wharfe Valley Farms

The Kilby family have been farming in Collingham for almost 50 years but it wasn’t until the 1980’s that they added oil seed rape to their traditional crop rotation and branched out into a subsidiary business, Wharfe Valley Farms.

The company now uses 100% of its crop to produce and press its own rapeseed oil in a specially designed and built press room on the farm.

The rape plant flowers briefly convert the landscape in May and June to brilliant patches of yellow then yield tiny jet black seeds when they are harvested in July. The seeds are fed straight into the hoppers and very slowly cold-pressed to produce the rich oil which has a range of culinary uses including salad dressing, roasting, stir-frying, baking and marinating.

Last year the firm joined UK Trade & Investment’s ‘Passport to Export’ programme in an attempt to prepare the ground for international business with their extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil.

Sallyann Kilby said: “It’s early days as we are a very small operation at the moment, but we are looking to expand our production in the near future and we will then be better placed to expand our business. Meantime we have learned a tremendous amount on the Passport programme about the export process and we have had a lot of questions answered.

“Rapeseed oil is a relatively new crop in this country and we have had to educate people about its natural qualities and how it is used. The best way to do this is by actually putting it under people’s noses and that’s hard work right here in the UK let alone overseas. However we want to be ready to seize the opportunity as it happens and that’s why we took on the export programme.”

The family have already given their product an overseas outing at a ‘Taste of Britain’ event organised by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and held at the British Embassy in Oslo.

Here, together with a number of other food and drink firms from the UK they were able to showcase their oil to prospective Norwegian buyers and at the same time find out a little about their market there.

Sallyann said: “We were very well looked after at the Embassy with our own stand and the Norwegians liked the taste of our oil. It’s events like this which are supported by UKTI at both ends which help to grow your confidence and now that we’ve done one (and providing we can find the time) we would welcome being involved in a similar overseas opportunity to promote our brand.

“In some countries such as those in Southern Europe where there is a traditional olive oil culture we wouldn’t expect to do much business, though this could change as the nutritional benefits of rape seed oil are better recognised. For instance it contains the lowest saturated fat content of any oil and less than half that of olive oil. In a world that is becoming increasingly health and diet-conscious our oil not only tastes good but ticks lots of boxes.

“We are investing in new equipment later in the year which will allow us to expand our production and this will put us in a much better position to pursue our export potential.”

For further information on the company please visit www.wharfevallyfarms.co.uk