A BUSINESS riding high on the trend for organic food will create 40 new jobs in the county over the next three years.

Abel and Cole, which sources and delivers organic vegetables, has announced that it has leased a new 5,000sq ft delivery centre in Aylesford.

The acquisition is also good news for local farmers as the company is looking to forge links with nearby growers who could potentially supply a lot of the fresh produce.

Nicholas Cannell, regional depot manager at Abel & Cole, said: “We have seen substantial growth in demand for our home deliveries over the last three years and having this delivery base in Kent will mean that a large amount of new customers will benefit from our organic boxes.

“Whereas most of our deliveries to this part of the South East were coming out of our Wimbledon depot, our new Kentish base will reduce our food miles considerably - something that is extremely important to us.”

The depot on the Larkfield Trading Estate will now be the main distribution centre for deliveries across Kent, East Sussex and South East London.

Organic box companies are doing brisk trade thanks to the continuing trend for locally-grown 'green’ produce championed by TV chefs including Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

At the moment, Abel and Cole has 60 independent organically-certified farmers across the South East producing everything from carrots to celery but this could rise considerably with the new Kent base.

The company was set up in 1988 and has bases in Wimbledon, Andover, Ongar, Warrington, Tamworth and Leeds, delivering to more than 40,000 properties a week.