Hugh Baker MRICS FAAV's Email

I am an experienced Rural Practice surveyor [Land Agent] and Company Director/Chairman who specialises in providing consultancy to the Agri-business/Food sectors. My activity is delivered via Hub Rural Ltd, which I own; Hub is a highly focused business based near Spalding, South Lincolnshire; there are 3 of us in the business delivering a range of services to clients from traditional Land Agency & Farm Business Consultancy through to Non Exec roles within client businesses; typical clients are significant farming business involved in food production who are vertically integrated down the food supply chain with the multiple retailers and many of which include variants of collaborative activity with other similar businesses and, or, landowners; an emerging area of our remit includes the role that agriculture has in the renewable energy sector, with specific experience in biofuels and anaerobic digestion. Prior to Hub’s formation in 2007, I spent 10 years with Rural Property Consultants Brown & Co in Spalding, as an Associate partner giving rural property and business advice to the proactive agri-food production businesses that characterise that part of the UK. Specialties: agribusiness, agri-business, agriculture, farming, food, food production, collaboration, collaborative farming, joint venture farming, fresh produce, food supply chain, grower groups, producer organisations, grower co-operatives, land agency, farm business consultancy, property consultancy, land agent, rural practice, renewables, green energy, renewable energy, anaerobic digestion, biofuels, cold pressed rapeseed oil, non exec director, non exec chairman, top fruit

Director/owner @ Hub Rural specialises in Land Agency & Farm business consultancy advice to a range of cleints including Agri-business, Estates, Families, individuals and other landowners. Specialist areas include the food supply chain, collaborative farimng, renewables and Non- Exec roles within the sector. From January 2007 to Present (9 years) Non Exec Chairman @ Lingrain is a central grain store based at the Port of Boston providing crop storage and management, to around 65 South Lincolnshire farming members; total capacity is circa 50,000 tonnes. The facility is intensively used in conjunction with Openfield, Lingrain's marketing agent, for both import and export of member and third party grains throughout the year, typically handling 150 to 200k tonnes PA. From November 2013 to Present (2 years 2 months) Non- Exec Chairman @ Fruit Growers Alliance Ltd is a 16 member Producer organisation [comprising the original FGA membership plus Fruitlink [Wisbech] Ltd]. The group collectively grows circa 10,000 tonnes of premium Apples and Pears, all of which are marketd to the UK multiple retailer base. The chairman's role comprises the running of the board combined with a remit to drive the business forward in terms of scale and innovation, with a view to maximising grower returns in sustainable and robust relationships with the groups customers. From November 2012 to Present (3 years 2 months) Non-Exec Director @ South Lincolnshire based agri-business specialising in potato production alongside other arable crops, farming circa 5,000 acres of owned, rented and contract farmed silt. From July 2007 to Present (8 years 6 months) Director @ Grower group based in and around Sherwood Forest, formed as a Producer Organisation with 8 members covering 16,500 acres, growing, packing, marketing and distributing root crops for multiple retailers, wholesale and food service. From November 2010 to Present (5 years 2 months) Non- Exec Chairman @ Fruitlink is a Top-Fruit producer organisation with membership producing apples and pears around Wisbech, in the east of England; the predominant customers are multiple retailers via relationships with category managers. The chairmans role comprises the running of the board combined with a remit to drive the business forward in terms of scale and innovation. In November 2012, Fruitlink merged with Fruit growers Alliance, and I became the Non-Exec Chairman of the new group. From June 2011 to November 2012 (1 year 6 months) Director @ Manufacturing, marketing and distribution business selling branded cold pressed rapeseed oil [Borderfields and Oleifera] to multiple retailers and independents From September 2009 to October 2010 (1 year 2 months) Director @ Biofuel producing business, using cold pressed rape seed oil for manufacture into bio-diesel and solid fuel feedstock frrom the expeller [solid fraction] From January 2006 to October 2010 (4 years 10 months) Director @ Fresh Produce packing and marketing business operating as Agent to Sherwood Produce Ltd. From September 2004 to October 2010 (6 years 2 months) Associate Partner @ Associate Partner with this progressive Property and Farm Business consultancy firm, operating from the Spalding office, serving many of the vertically integrated agri-businesses and landowners that characterise the South Lincolnshire area and the East Midlands From October 1996 to September 2004 (8 years)

Worshipful Company of Farmers - Advanced Farm Management, Farm business management @ University of London - Wye Campus From 2006 to 2006 Post Grad Diploma, Rural Estate Managment @ Royal Agricultural University From 1992 to 1993 BSc Hons, Rural Resource Development @ Writtle College From 1989 to 1992 Hugh Baker MRICS FAAV is skilled in: Agriculture, Renewable Energy, Food, Agribusiness, Food Processing, Biofuels, Sustainable Energy, Fresh Produce, Anaerobic Digestion, Property Consultancy, Farms, Rural Development, Agronomy, Strategy, Food Manufacturing