LIKE their mushrooms, the quality and production of Greyfriars, Wath, is growing.

Greyfriars, the marketing arm of Northern Mushrooms, officially opened its new grading and distribution premises at Wath, near Ripon on Tuesday, with a ceremony performed by Tesco director Peter Fry.

The £m project, funded by European co-operative marketing grants, supports the production of many independent producers across the North-East and Northern Ireland, and represents a major investment in the future of UK mushroom production.

It is one of the most significant commitments to British Agriculture in the area for many years and is good news in what has been a depressing period for everyone in the industry.

Welcoming guests to the official opening, the managing director of the family firm, John Smith, told the gathering that it was some ten years ago that Terry Leahy of Tesco told an NFU congress the supermarket company wanted to associate itself with more British growers.

"I wrote to him next day and said we were such growers and would very much like an opportunity to supply Tesco.

"To his great credit, he replied immediately and suggested a meeting. The upshot of that meeting was a trial period of supplying about 4,000lb of mushrooms a week to the Doncaster depot. In the ensuing decade our sales have risen year on year to an average of about 100,000lb a week.

"Tesco was no easy taskmaster, they expected the best. The best quality, service and price - every order. This is why Tesco is the nation's leading grocer and we want to be assoiated with them."

Morrisons was another worthy customer, he said, along with Simply Fresh and Del Monte.

"Sometimes we get it wrong. We are dealing with one of the most perishable products on the shelf, along with soft fruit, and when we have problems, we work our way through them with excellent support from the Tesco technical staff," said Mr Smith.

"But most of the time we get it right - or should I say our Northern grower members and the Greyfriars and packing staff get it right - 99.56pc of the time.

"That is, only 150 cases of product get rejected out of 35,000 delivered. It is this achievement which has lead to our being able to justify the expenditure of more than £m on this new facility you see here today."

Northern Mushrooms has put £400,000 into the project and Greyfriars, £100,000.

The investment was a tangible commitment to the company's objectives and customer needs, he said, and added: "This investment is also a positive statement in what is a pretty dire rural picture. I think we were all most impressed with Sunday's march in London, prompted by a groundswell of apprehension and concern over what is to become of British agriculture and horticulture.

"Greyfriars, Northern Mushrooms, Tesco and Morrisons are really saying today that there are opportunities to be found, there are ways of keeping the rural economy alive and that there can be a future for the countryside."

It was the nation's greatest single asset and it was time more people realised this.

Mr Smith introduced Mr Fry to perform the official opening ceremony for the new building.

Mr Fry said: "It is encouraging to see Greyfriars making such an investment. It is especially welcome in such difficult times. This investment gives Greyfriars the opportunity to show a great example to the rest of the industry. I congratulate you."

The company started out as Wilgro Mushrooms in 1987, with a ten-shed production farm replicating the set-up found typically in Ireland. In its early days, the unit produced about 8,000lb of mushrooms a week and marketed this to local, fixed-price wholesalers and into the commission markets of Leeds, Middlesbrough and Hull.

Unfortunately, the business was established just at the time when the industry in Britain was about to enter its worst ever slump.

The basis of the company's expansion is the same as that which had worked so successfully in Ireland - the satellite system. Wilgro put together a programme involving the recruitment and training of new growers to the industry in locations close to the Wath centre of operations.

Some 15 new production units have been established. The name was changed in 1999