John Scott

NFU Sugar Board

John grows just over 3,000 tonnes of beet on marginal land, 12 miles from the Newark Factory.

A first generation farmer, he studied Agriculture at Reading before going into the computer industry in a technical role.

Ten years later, John established an award-winning recruitment business, growing it to 100 staff and servicing some of the fastest growing and most innovative companies in the world, where he saw good ideas put into practice, fast. He also learnt to deal with complex organisational structures in large corporations.

Initially starting farming as a hobby, he finally went full time as the issues that Covid-19 would bring became apparent. Fully up to speed on good agricultural practice, he is also politically aware and commercially very experienced, and looking to bring a different perspective to the board.

He is interested in several areas of Board activity; beet delivery, factory performance (and sugar extraction), crop forecasting and AI, and the preservation and evolution of the IPA. His motivation for joining the board is primarily to help tackle unfairness in the supply-chain and support the industry to become an exemplar of best practice.