Meet the farmers

Neil Spink - Clarence Murray

I manage the company of Clarence Murray (Potato Growers and Farmers) Ltd, based in Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire.

Clarence Murray Ltd has been in existence in the area as a potato grower for many decades, operating from our present site since the 1950's, growing and supplying seed and ware potatoes mainly to the wholesale markets, but also directly to potato farmers. In 1999 the business became part of the D M Carnegie group, and in 2002 started supplying Albert Bartlett & Sons with pre-pack quality potatoes for the supermarket industry.

We grow 400 acres of various different varieties of potatoes in the surrounding area of Laurencekirk, and grade all of our stocks using a team of 10 employees. The varieties grown for Bartlett's include Rooster, Osprey, Harmony and Nicola as well as the more traditional varities of King Edward, Kerr's Pink, Maris Piper and Maris Peer. This equates to an annual production of over 4000 tonnes of supermarket quality potatoes.

The balance of our acreage is allocated to seed potato production and from this, we supply export markets such as Thailand, Egypt, Spain, Scandinavia as well as throughout the UK. All of our crops, ware and seed are grown with strict awareness of environmental impact of our field operations, including how we affect flora and fauna, and the effect on soil structures. For this reason, we leave field margins where possible, but more especially in sloping fields where water run-off can cause erosion. We also use low level active ingredient fungicides which have been proven to be less harmful to the environment. Due to our strict policies, we have conformity status in both Tesco Nature's Choice and the Assured Produce Scheme, and similar status in the seed potato industry Safe Haven Scheme, which monitors the health and quality of seed stocks and their movement.

My hobbies outside work are motorcycling and caravanning, both of which take up many weekends throughout the year to some of the special places in Scotland for visiting. Back to Farmers