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Locally Grown

Hovis To Use 100% British Flour For Their Loaves
November 23 2009

From January 2010, all loaves made by Hovis will use 100 per cent British flour. You may be surprised to hear that this is news, but the wheat needed to make bread rise evenly hasn’t been able to survive in the mild British climate, and so we have had to import it from Canada 

However, after five years of experiments by Hovis, which has persuaded 600 farmers to grow a special version of Canadian Red Wheat instead of standard British, and this wheat will be sown in the winter rather than in September, Hovis is confident its British Red Wheat will produce as good a loaf as the Canadian version. 

Jon Goldstone, at Hovis, said: "We used to import £18 million worth of Canadian wheat, £18 million which will now go to British farmers. Consumers are very interested in the UK being self-sufficient and supporting British farmers." 

Very few staple foods eaten in Britain are entirely home-grown, with fresh milk and fresh eggs the only key items grown entirely in this country. 

Hovis said their loaves, though fractionally more expensive to manufacture, will cost consumers no more. "It's an investment that we think will pay off," said Mr Goldstone. 

The Corn Laws, introduced to protect British farmers, were passed in 1815, and were repealed in 1846 as prices of flour rose and led to people starving. In the years that followed, Britain imported increasing amounts of cheap corn grown on the vast prairie farms of America. By the 1880s two-thirds of all corn consumed in Britain was imported.