From Green Peas to Green Factory

Plans Unveiled for UK’s Greenest Pea Processing Centre

A cooperative of Yorkshire farmers has joined forces with a top European frozen food business and a local Bio Energy firm to build one of the UK’s greenest food processing facilities in Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire. d’Arta UK Ltd, Swaythorpe Growers Ltd and GWE Biogas Ltd have revealed ambitious plans to create a state of the art green processing plant for frozen peas. The business will trade under the name, Yorkshire Greens and will process peas grown in the East Riding by Swaythorpe Growers, who retail their peas under the brand Yorkshire Peas.

The pioneering new site will be entirely fuelled by sustainable renewable energy, and the business aims to be one of the UK’s first carbon neutral food factories.  GWE Biogas is one of the foremost producers of power from unavoidable food waste in the UK, and will be providing all the power and heat for the new facility.  All vegetable waste produced by the plant will also be converted to renewable energy though anaerobic digestion.

Ian Keyes of d’Arta UK, commented, “d’Arta has a long history of investing in sustainable agriculture, and the Yorkshire Greens plant uniquely combines the 3 principles of our sustainability policy; planet, people and product. Building a zero-carbon processing facility is right for our business and right for the environment and we look forward to working with our innovative and entrepreneurial Yorkshire partners.”

Tom Megginson, director of GWE Biogas said, “The Yorkshire Greens plant has potential to be one of the most cutting edge food businesses in Britain. Our investment in sustainable renewable energy will make this plant one of the most efficient processors in the country. It’s a genuinely game changing business in the industry.”

Tim Rymer, Chairman of Swaythorpe Growers said, “This is an exciting and ambitious project that will reduce the carbon footprint of our Yorkshire grown frozen peas as well as dramatically reducing food miles, as the facility is in the heart of our growing area.  This means we’ll reduce the travel time from field to factory even further, ensuring a better product for customers.”

“As farmers, we respect and understand the importance of looking after the land, so building a factory fuelled entirely on unavoidable food waste makes a great deal of common sense.”