Talk of agricultural doom is proving to be just so much rhubarb, says ROB SIMPSON, of the Yorkshire and North East National Farmers Union

FARMING is in the doldrums. No-one in the agricultural industry needs me to tell them that.

Report after report confirms farmers everywhere are losing money hand-over-fist, and that in the last two years, 41,000 farmers and farm workers left the industry from England alone - the biggest exodus in living memory.

It may come as no surprise that confidence in the industry is rock-bottom, and yet there are Yorkshire farmers clinging on to optimism for the future.

Farmers in this country are waking up to the fact that there is no point in producing the best food in the world if no-one knows about it.

Many farmers, including those in North and East Yorkshire, have been forced to acknowledge the industry has done little to market itself in the past, and are now doing their best to catch up.

Some initiatives, such as the 'little red tractor' food label which can be seen on thousands of fresh food products in the supermarkets, operate on a huge scale and benefit thousands of farmers. The little red tractor is a guarantee of British food produced to the highest standards.

But many other marketing ventures are involved with one, or a handful, of farmers.

Farmers' markets are often the best place to see individuals marketing themselves and their products.

Grant Burton, who farms at Wilberfoss, east of York, (featured in last month's Business Press) has learned that selling his own sausages can be worthwhile. Mandy Sowray, from Terrington, north of York, has discovered a niche market for her cured ham and bacon.

Meanwhile, one specialised crop grown by fewer than 20 producers in the whole of the country has built up an enviable marketing position.

Winter gourmet rhubarb, celebrated recently on its national awareness day, is today a firm favourite for many shoppers, partly as a result of years of marketing and promotion.

Winter gourmet rhubarb growers have discovered their niche and have learned to sell the individuality of a crop which grows at an amazing rate in the total darkness of 'forcing' sheds.

The light deprivation leads to a sweeter rhubarb than the summer variety and it has become the connoisseurs' choice for sweet and savoury dishes.

Most of the nation's winter gourmet rhubarb is grown in what is known as West Yorkshire's 'rhubarb triangle', a region bounded by Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield.

Although the number of growers in the rhubarb triangle has fallen from 200 in the 19th century, to just 15 today, the vegetable's popularity is increasing all the time.

Such is the fascination built up around the rhubarb that 1,000 people will be taking a guided tour of a forcing shed before the end of this year's harvest in March.

And as they stand in the pitch-black of the shed, the only sound they will be likely to hear will be the popping of the stems as they break through their sheaths!