Product Innovation Manager, Emma Watson, has been announced as the regional runner up in the Young Producer category of this year’s M&S Select Farm Awards.
As a finalist in the Young Producer category for England and Wales, Emma’s achievements were recognised at the official M&S Select Farm Awards presentation on the M&S stand at this year’s Royal Welsh Show, during which she was commended for developing and launching the first UK-grown watermelon radish.
Emma is only 24 years old but has spent the last eight years working for G’s, where she has worked extensively as part of the G’s trials team in locations throughout the UK, as well as farms in Spain and Senegal. In 2017, she was appointed to lead the G’s trial innovation team and has been instrumental in testing and trialling new salad varieties.
“Emma first started working for G’s as an apprentice but is now a highly knowledgeable member of our senior management team,” explains Anthony Gardiner, Marketing Director at G’s Fresh. “She has worked tirelessly to streamline the innovation process in fresh salad products and helped build excellent relationships with customers in the retail sector.
“In 2018, M&S exclusively launched the first UK-grown watermelon radish (available in stores as ‘Pink Burst radish’), which represented the culmination of six years’ worth of work from Emma and the innovation team at G’s. The project involved years of testing across a wide range of soil types, in different geographic areas and utilising a range of growing systems. The result was a product declared ‘the most Instagram-friendly vegetable in fresh produce’!”
The M&S Select Farm Awards are held annually to celebrate producers in the M&S supply base and the awards are open to all farmers and growers that supply M&S. The awards have three categories; the Innovation Award recognises producers pushing the boundaries in their sector, the Young Producer award champions young, forward thinking individuals and the Award for Excellence focuses on producers that have demonstrated all-round outstanding performance in their sector.
Steve McLean, Head of Agriculture and Fisheries at M&S, said: “Emma is a well-respected figure in her field and the hard work that she put into developing a UK-grown watermelon radish should be highly commended.
“She is dedicated to her work in the fresh produce sector and I look forward to seeing what other products she will develop and help to launch in the future.”
As a regional runner up in the M&S Select Farm Awards, Emma was presented with a certificate of achievement at an official awards presentation on the M&S stand during this year’s Royal Welsh Show.
