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In your field: Dan Hawes – "We're farmers, things change, supermarkets buy imported apples in peak season, but we adapt, we have to"

Dan Hawes grew up on an arable farm in Suffolk and now produces strawberry and raspberry plants for the UK fruit market with Blaise Plants, sister company to Hugh Lowe Farms, Kent. The business grows outside, under tunnels and in glasshouses and produces more than four million plants a year. The arable side includes environmental schemes, with a mix of wheat, oilseed rape, beans and barley crops

clock • 2 min read
Dan Hawes
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Dan Hawes

Hopefully everyone reading this is refreshed from New Year celebrations, or the 5am start that followed for those still working. January 2 also happens to be the date I passed my driving test, not saying...

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