For nearly 5 years now, a group of Grainco growers, mainly in Scotland, have been producing milling oats on a forward contract basis for Quaker. This group was set up by Edward Rust who has developed it to become Quaker’s largest single supplier. Until recently it has been known informally as the Quaker Oat Producer Group, but we intend now to be known at the OatCo Grower Group in order help develop the group’s identity.

Quaker are part of Pepsico, a US food and beverage giant who produce many prominent food brands including Walkers crisps, Tropicana fruit juices and Coppella apple juice in addition to that well known fizzy drink !

Uthrogle Mill just outside Cupar in Fife is Quaker’s main manufacturing site for Europe, with a significant proportion of output being exported. In addition to "hots" (hot breakfast cereal products such as porridge), granola, tinned oatmeal and other cereal based products are manufactured here. Cupar also partly processes product for finishing elsewhere.

The company is heavily involved in product development, and the Oatso Simple porridge range, a product that enables a bowl of porridge to be made more quickly and easily, is a successful example of this. In fact Oatso Simple has become so successful that others are copying the idea, and you may have noticed that supermarket shelves are now crowded with oat-based breakfast cereals, both hot and cold.

To maintain brand integrity, Quaker have a policy of not producing any own-label products; in other words they will not pack products directly branded by any of the major food retailers.

From the grower’s perspective, supplying a company with a strong must-have brand gives us a chance to lift up from the commodity price floor and share some of the value that the brand has. In return growers have to be committed to long term oat production and be capable of producing to a high quality specification.

Uthrogle Mill is currently undergoing expansion, and will be looking to increase oat usage. In total Grainco supplies nearly 40,000 tonnes, with 30,000 tonnes of this through the producer group.

The main advantages of producer group membership are as follows :

• Favourable contract terms that reward growers for commitment and quality.

• On-farm sampling giving a much clearer picture of quality before oats arrive at the Mill. Different quality characteristics can be accommodated by Quaker depending on the particular end product being manufactured - accurate information leads to a lower rejection rate on arrival, and helps Quaker programme deliveries appropriate to their own production schedule.

• Access to Quaker through an annual producer group meeting, and shared agronomy information.

One of the other spin-offs from the group is grower involvement in product promotion. So far this has taken the form of incorporating pictures of growers into a revamped package design, and we now have cereal and porridge packs with various producer group members seen standing in fields of golden oats. One of our growers, John Wilson, who farms less than a mile from Uthrogle is shown here on the standard oat pack. Despite Scotland being known to have one or two sunny days in the year, the photo shoot was actually carried out inside and images transfered to produce the desired effect. None of those present at the shoot wanted to be on the pack with "So Simple" posted above their image, so in fine tradition this honour was bestowed on a Grainco Board Member!

If any existing Grainco growers are interested in becoming part of the Quaker producer group, please contact Edward Rust in Turrif on 01888 564195, or myself directly.

John Hutcheson
07770 927755