Taste of Kent Awards logo

2024

Hempstead Farm, Hempstead Lane, Bapchild

Ro-Gro

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CATEGORY

BRONZE

Kent Start-Up Food and Drink Business of the Year

Ro-Gro is the daughter company of Machere.

Quite literally too – the company was named after our little girl, Rosie. Whilst Machere embodies a larger body of farming in the Garden of England, Ro-Gro is all about growing and providing quality produce to our local area.

Farming is the family business: Machere is the name of our family’s first-generation farm in Zimbabwe. After settling down in the UK, faced with wet weather and rising land rates, it was obvious that we would have to adapt and adopt new technologies in order to continue our family farming tradition of 110 years.

We’re now an indoor operation based in Kent, so we may not have mud on our boots, but our ethos is the same: we believe strong communities are built around fresh and local food.

The plan is to grow the business to a production area of 5,000m2, currently 79m2, in the next 5 years. The produce will be available in Kent and the region in the Ro-Gro brand, sold through hospitality and retail.

Products grown in addition to microgreens and herbs will include baby leaf. Development work is ongoing in order to be able to offer all products as ready-to-eat without a wash step.

The business will continue to be built on and around the ethos of sustainability and family.

Produced in Kent Member
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