Steven Murray.

Assistant Farm Manager
From Newcastle, UK

My home town is Newcastle upon Tyne, so had no farming experience, and after finishing school between September 2000 and July 2002 I worked on a kibbutz in Israel as a dairyman.

I returned to England to go to the Royal Agricultural College in October 2002, staying until July 2006 to get a degree in agriculture. As part of the degree I had a work placement at Riverford Organic farm in Devon as a labourer and on completing the degree worked for a few months for London Food Link as a volunteer; setting up a database linking producers with buyers from around the greater London area.

In January 2007, I successfully applied to the Berryworld Management Trainee Scheme and started working in their Technical Department to get a grounding in some of the demands of supplying the major retailers. As part of the Management Training Scheme I was moved, in April 2007, to outdoor production, joining the Sheeplands Farm team, working on the harvest under Laurie Adams, also a previous Berryworld Management Trainee. In Jan 2008, the Berryworld Management Training Scheme decided to focus on recruiting for their Technical Department needs, not those of the suppliers, so I joined HHP full time.

For the majority of 2008, I worked on irrigation and in Jan 2009 took on more responsibility at Sheeplands, fully controlling the harvest. I am now moving to Manor farm on the south coast as Assistant Farm Manager, which is another great opportunity for me.

I chose to stay at HHP because I find it an exciting and challenging environment with good career prospects.

I like the fact we are always pushing to improve performance year on year, striving to be the best in the industry through new techniques and innovative thinking; this, for me is the kind of environment that stimulates learning and interest in soft fruit.