The Food Programme Is Food Processing the ‘Missing Middle’?
Mar 27, 2026
Justin and Paddy Barrett, who run Askew & Barrett, a family firm processing peas and beans at scale in the UK. They walk through the factory machines that clean, sort and bag pulses. Hear about on-farm oat processing, how regional processors keep value local, and why retaining UK processing capacity matters for resilience and supply chains.
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The Missing Midscale Stops Artisanal Bean Producers
- A missing mid-scale processing sector prevents small artisanal canners from starting because canning capacity is concentrated in very large plants.
- Katie Jones says startups struggle to find anywhere to can beans without being a big manufacturer, so the middle is 'missing'.
Spanish Regional Processor Linked Directly To Farmers
- In Salamanca a regional processor, Legumbres Montes, sits amid bean fields and uses optical sorting to class beans by size and colour for jars destined to UK shelves.
- Perpetuo Benito sells harvests directly to that local processor who supplies supermarkets and export markets.
Concentrated Processing Creates Single-Point Vulnerability
- The UK now largely routes pulses through one large processor, Askew & Barrett, after ADM closed its plant, concentrating national capacity and risk.
- Justin/Paddy Barrett describe becoming the sole large-scale processor for peas and beans for human consumption in the UK.