Agricultural Business Development Award 2018

The Buskerud company takes home the honours and the first prize of NOK 250,000. The other two nominees for this year's Business Development Award in Agriculture are Kringler Gjestegård from Akershus, and Stavanger Ysteri and farmer Kolbjørn Anda from Rogaland.

'Ask Gård is exactly the kind of business we support – young entrepreneurs who identify a niche in the market and successfully develop unique products that sell. Ask Gård runs its business sustainably and innovatively, and its quality products have helped put Ringerike on the culinary map,' says Kjell Bruvoll, Special Adviser and Head of our Business Development Award for Agriculture.

'Receiving this award is incredibly inspiring and strengthens our competitiveness. There is so much exciting work happening among Norwegian food producers today. Being named the winner is a great honour, and we will carry this recognition with us as we continue to develop Ask Gård,' says Anne Marthe Evang.

Ask Farm produces handcrafted organic cured meats and meat products. Combining Italian craftsmanship with Norwegian ingredients, the couple behind the venture, Kristoffer and Anne Marthe Evang, have developed cured meats to international standards.

'The Business Development Award for Agriculture aims to showcase and honour innovative agricultural businesses. Norwegian agriculture is remarkably diverse and undergoing exciting developments, as this year's winner clearly demonstrates,' says Bård Hoksrud, Minister of Agriculture and Food.

The sausage-making venture began in the farm's 22-square-metre storehouse in 2013, using meat from their own organic sheep. The following year, the Evangs invested in a 220-square-metre sausage-making facility on the farm, which now provides five local jobs. At Ask, the sausages are filled by hand, while each cut of meat is hand-tied and salted individually. These are then combined with the finest spices.

In addition to lamb from their own farm, they use Duroc pork, known for its slow growth and distinctive meat quality.

ASK farm is currently the only company in Norway producing exclusively organic cured meats. Its products have won awards including a 'Great Taste Award' in London, gold in the Norwegian Championships for Organic Product of the Year, Food Entrepreneur of the Year, the Specialty label and now the Business Development Award in Agriculture.

The company has experienced rapid growth and, in just a few years, has built a business that combines sustainability and animal welfare with unique products supplied to more than 300 shops and restaurants across Norway.

– When you've worked around the clock for several years and sometimes asked yourself what you're really doing, whether it's actually worth it, and whether anyone else really cares what's in the sausage, it's good to hear someone say: 'Hey, we see what you're doing – great job,' says Kristoffer Evang, CEO of Ask Gård Foredling AS.