Press release · August 2026

FarmCo opens UK marketplace built around the farm, not the warehouse.

After eight years of trying different ways to connect people with local food, and three years building the technology, FarmCo is opening its new marketplace to farmers and independent food makers across the UK.

The idea is simple. Help producers sell direct, keep control of fulfilment, and make the local farm somewhere customers can shop from every week.

Watch · FarmCo Marketplace

Jack Joseph introduces FarmCo Marketplace, why we built it and what we are opening up to farmers and food makers across the UK.

Eight years of learning

We did the shop, the deliveries, the collections and the packing.

FarmCo started in South Wales in 2017. Since then we have tested pop-ups, online ordering, home delivery, click and collect and our own physical farm shop.

Last year we closed that shop. It gave us the chance to rethink what FarmCo was actually for.

The answer was not another retailer sitting between producer and customer. It was a piece of infrastructure that lets the producer stay in control.

FarmCo founder

Built from doing it.

FarmCo has spent eight years testing different ways of selling local food before building its marketplace model.

“We packed the boxes, drove the vans, dealt with changing stock, collection points, missed collections and customer questions. We learned where the work really sits.”

What makes the model different

The farm becomes the local convenience store.

There are now several models trying to make local food easier to buy. Some aggregate products into central fulfilment, some rely heavily on courier delivery, and some act mainly as directories or ordering layers.

FarmCo is deliberately built around something different. The producer remains the point of fulfilment.

A farmer can open a weekly order cycle, sell what is actually available, then have customers collect from the farm, collect from a nearby hub, or use a small hyper-local delivery round that makes sense for that business.

It slows the system down on purpose. Instead of pretending every farm is a supermarket warehouse, FarmCo makes each farm a place people can return to every week.

Built around real production

Sell what you have, when you have it.

The platform is open to meat producers, vegetable growers, beekeepers, cheesemakers, dairies, bakers, market gardeners and other independent primary and secondary food producers.

If a beef farmer wants collection every other Thursday, the platform can work around that. If a grower has changing produce every week, their shop can reflect it. If a producer wants a five-mile delivery round, they can keep that local.

That gives producers a route to sell direct without rebuilding their whole working week around ecommerce.

A selling tool, not another job

Products, orders, messages, customers and story in one place.

FarmCo gives each producer their own place on the marketplace, with products, availability, order management and customer communication brought together.

There is also a producer marketing area for current photos, videos and updates, plus direct messaging around orders and fulfilment. The intention is closer to the simple seller experience people now understand from platforms such as Vinted, but built for the realities of food production.

The point is to reduce the admin around direct selling so farmers and food makers can spend more time farming, growing, baking, making and producing.

Built for 2026

Buying food locally should be easy without making it anonymous.

Customers will be able to discover producers near them, see what is available that week, order online and understand exactly where and when they collect or receive it.

The convenience comes from finding and ordering. The relationship with the producer stays local.

The next stage

Now we are opening the doors.

FarmCo is currently testing the marketplace with founding producers in Gower, South Wales, and is now inviting farmers and independent food makers across the UK to join the next stage.

Customers can also join the mailing list to hear when farms and weekly markets go live in their area.

“FarmCo has always been a passion project around one simple idea. Good food is being produced all over the UK. It should be easier for the people producing it to sell it, and easier for the people living around them to buy it. After eight years and several versions of FarmCo, this is the first time I feel we have built the right thing.”

Press & interviews

Jack Joseph
Founder, FarmCo
jack@farmcomarket.com
07506 992644
@farmcowales
farmcomarket.com

Press images