Coldham farmer picked as face of Co-operative campaign to promote British farming
A SUPERMARKET chain has chosen a Fenland farmer and ‘King of Onions’ to be the face of their campaign to champion British produce.
The Co-operative Group, the only supermarket to also run farms, picked Russell Armstrong to appear on the packaging of onions in more than 3,000 stores in the country.
Mr Armstrong, who works on the Coldham Estate, near Wisbech, was chosen by the group to appear on all onions packaging because he supplies 40 per cent, around 70 million, of all onions sold in Co-op stores.
He said: “I’m extremely proud to be a British farmer and help promote the fresh quality seasonal produce that is grown and enjoyed by people across the country.
“I’m now the King of Onions. I’ve had a little bit of ribbing from friends and family but overall they’re very porud of me.
You may also want to watch:
“We’ve had quite a good year on the farm, with the sun in April and May pushing through the crops and the Indian summer in September made harvesting easier as it was really dry, and it’s all toped off with being the face of onions.
“It was clear we needed new packaging and it now means that customers will appreciate the farmers more and that the onions just don’t appear on the shelves magically.”
Most Read
- 1 Vaccine roll-out begins, 12 hours a day, seven days a week
- 2 'Small number of Covid-19 deaths' at care home
- 3 Artist impressions of how Mepal will be transformed into a £6.5m crematorium
- 4 Coronavirus test centre staff ‘receive abuse’ from angry motorists
- 5 Council offers reserved parking for elderly heading for Covid jab
- 6 Slimmer's life-changing weight loss story
- 7 Tributes to 'loving, kind family man' and community stalwart
- 8 Minor injury unit closes to allow staff to respond to crisis in the community
- 9 Man attempts to smuggle MDMA tablets disguised as Mars Bar into jail
- 10 Man, 39, convicted of assault on two HMRC officers by beating
Christine Tacon, managing director of The Co-operative Farms, added: “The Co-operative has a long heritage in farming and we supply significant volumes of produce from our own farms to our food stores.
“This bold new packaging will highlight key British produce lines when they are available in store and demonstrate our continued commitment to British farming. It will also enable our customers to support these growers.”
The new packaging, which features a large Union Jack and photographs and comments from the farmers, will be put in store over the next 12 months.