Sustainability Spotlight | South Devon Chilli Farm
South Devon Chilli Farm - the Home of British Chillies - has a history spanning more than 20 years. The unique, 10-acre farm was taken on by Amrit and Jenny in 2022, and now grows well over 100 varieties and harvests several tonnes of chillies a year.
Already a sustainable business before Amrit and Jenny took over, the last three years have seen the couple make huge strides to improve its sustainable credentials even more.
With a mission to be the foremost chilli destination in Europe, it offers chilli plants, knowledge and artisan products and passionately promotes the joy of these versatile plants.
Amrit and Jenny are fiercely proud of their 'Seed to Sauce' principle. The tonnes of fresh chillies they nurture need only travel a few metres across the farm and into their kitchen, to be turned into award-winning products. They employ local people and pay fair wages, avoiding waste by only growing, processing and cooking what's needed.
Natural predators keep crops healthy, which means no pesticides or other harmful chemicals. Products use vinegar or sugar as natural preservatives, which means nothing artificial, and everything is made in small batches and cooked by hand.
Products are available to buy online, wholesale, and from the on-site Farm Shop, as well as via stockists naationwide.
We asked Jenny and Amrit to tell us more about how their unique farm and shop is becoming ever more sustainable.
What have you done to make your business more sustainable?
One of the first things we did was to put solar panels on the roof of our warehouse. We were able to do this with the benefit of some local government funding as well as our own cashflow. This has helped enormously to bring our energy bills down year round, and though we don’t have a battery yet to be able to store excess power on sunny days, it still provides a good level of output year-round to help with our processes.
The Chilli Farm has always been a proponent of natural processes - the farm has never used pesticides in its growing processes, since day one.
We are also now proud to call ourselves entirely peat-free which is a huge environmental benefit and differentiator in a horticultural business.
We also do not use any artificial chemicals or ingredients in our cooked product – only natural preservatives such as vinegar and sugar.
Since we took over the farm we've reduced the level of imported goods that the business relies upon, to reduce the food miles of the business overall. We also have to be careful about supply chain and modern slavery issues in a business such as chilli products, where a lot of imported goods come from developing countries where labour rights are not as protected as in the UK. Using more of our own product allows us to be more confident in the treatment of people.
What would you like to change in the future to improve your sustainability credentials further?
We would like to be able to improve our self-sustainability in terms of power by introducing a battery system or sellback to the grid system, which could, in time, make us entirely self-sufficient for electricity.
Improving the sustainability of our packaging materials is a priority. We already favour glass over plastic, but there is a lot of scope to improve our mail order packaging materials, which we're currently researching and trialling.
We’d also like to improve the eco-credentials of our waste and recycling management and to explore how we can reuse as much of our waste product as possible within the business.
What are your tips for other businesses that want to become more sustainable?
Find local government grants for support for the 'big stuff'.
Think about small steps you can take. Every little step in the right direction helps, it doesn’t have to be huge, costly investment-level changes!
Think outside the box when it comes to your processes and challenge the status quo. Are there simple changes you could make to be greener without any real hassle?
Find out more about South Devon Chilli Farm. Visit their website below and pay them a visit. Check opening hours on the website as they vary throughout the year.