The Farmers’ Union of Wales has honoured the founder of Castell Howell Foods with an award for ‘Outstanding Services to Welsh Agriculture’.

At a dinner held in honour of Brian Jones at the Halliwell Centre in Carmarthen, FUW president Ian Rickman said: “35 years ago Brian Jones and Castell Howell Foods officially started their journey to being one of the largest independent food wholesalers to the foodservice sector in the UK.

“From the company’s inception in 1988, the business has grown to employ in excess of 800 colleagues, list a range of over 14,000 products, delivering to 5000 customers across Wales and the border counties every week.

“The work Brian has done on behalf of agriculture, food production and promotion of Welsh produce over the years has been exceptional for that we thanked him with this special award.”

Castell Howell is proud of its Welsh agricultural roots with the promotion of local and regional foods a core value.

Thanks to his dedication to the food sector, and supporting the communities where the business operates Brian was awarded an MBE, has had the honour of being president of both the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society and Pembrokeshire Show, and is a Fellow of Aberystwyth University.

FUW chief executive Guto Bebb added: “I thank the Carmarthen team for their hard work in pulling this event together.

“It has been a triumph for agriculture and we are proud to have stalwarts such as Brian Jones in our industry ranks.

“The award is very well deserved and I congratulate Brian on his achievements.”