Producers supplying products through on-farm vending machines have seen significant increases in demand amid supermarket shelf shortages.
With essentials becoming scarce across many supermarket shelves amid the coronavirus pandemic, consumers buying behaviour appeared to have shifted, as more looked to alternative ways of getting what they need.
Karen Halton, who runs a 530-head herd with husband Tom near Congleton, Cheshire, installed ‘Halton Farms Milk Shack' in September 2016 and had seen demand rise from an average of 60 litres per day to more than 170 in the last fortnight.
Mrs Halton said: "People in our area are going to the supermarket and cannot get milk and we have seen a lot of new faces at the milk shack in the last week or so especially.
"Many are asking questions around the fact that it [the milk] is raw and what that means and lot of them are surprised to hear about the nutritional qualities it has to offer.
"As an industry, we cannot afford to not engage with that.
"This is a golden opportunity for our industry to promote itself, and a huge chance for us to portray farming in a positive light. I know I am not going to be able to keep-hold of all of this custom, but this opportunity to engage is huge and one we cannot let up on."
The Halton's have also set up a milk pasteurising and processing plant and, having teamed up with local firm The Little Doorstep Dairy, will be delivering pasteurised milk to doorsteps as of Wednesday (March 25) this week.
Given the current situation, they had also committed to delivering all individuals over the age of 70 on the round a free pint of milk per week until June, and were hoping to set up a pop up shop at a local hospital, suppling milk and other essentials for NHS staff at shift change overs.
Steven Pace, who's family keep 135,000 laying hens selling eggs through their Cheshire Egg Co. brand on the outskirts of Congleton, Cheshire, said they had also sold ‘considerably more' eggs via their on-farm vending machine in the last week.
Although he had not seen any evidence of people stockpiling [from the vending machine], it was evident, he said, that people were buying that little bit extra to see them through a fortnight or so.
Mr Pace said: "I think the empty shelves in supermarkets have a knock-on effect, we have definitely sold considerably more than the usual 60 dozen per week this week through the machine."
The business had also seen a significant increase in demand from its wholesale customers, Mr Pace explained, with many of the farm shops and other smaller retailers it supplied upping their order from weekly to daily.
Mr Pace said: "We have been egg collecting almost continually and grading immediately after to meet wholesale demand as well as that of vending machine customers.
"We are used to having peaks and troughs in demand through the year, at Christmas and other big events and although this was unexpected, I think us and other producers have acted quickly and made the necessary adaptations to the business to meet the demand.
"We have also asked businesses to limit their sales of our eggs to a reasonable number per customer and by in large I think most people have been sensible."
Mr Pace also said that, amid record demand seen in supermarkets of late, he saw a window for more medium egg sales here which could go in place of some food service outlet demand which had been lost in-line with recent shutdowns.
Both sites reiterated that they were taking the necessary measures around hygiene, providing sanitizer to customers and disinfecting regularly.
Clinton Dairy in East Devon which manages 750 cows across two organic dairy farms operate a 24/7 vending machine at Otterton Mill visitor centre, in addition to a Muller contract, and were also reporting that sales had doubled since the crisis began.
Farms manager Sam Briant-Evans said: "It is pretty much business as usual at the dairy. Even at an immensely difficult time like this, the animals still need to be fed and milked, so the work does not stop and we will continue to meet demand.
"Additionally, our vending machine which usually sells 10 to 12 litres per day day, is currently seeing sales of 25 to 30 litres per day, and we expect that to continue to rise.
"We are taking all the correct precautions and following daily Government advice to ensure our teams are safe and protected at all times. We are observing all social distancing guidelines and following strict hygiene and sanitisation protocols."
