Holkham Emerald is a new joint venture operation between the Holkham Estate and Emerald Crops Limited. The intention of this new company is to develop a sizeable vegetable production operation on the estate, utilising Holkham land and water and Emerald marketing and growing skills. 

The farming company is heavily involved in the new operation, supplying various services including irrigation, spraying and ploughing. Specialist services such as planting and harvesting are supplied by other contractors.

The new company was founded in September 2008 and planted its first crops in spring 2009. These have included 300 acres of potatoes, 220 acres of carrots and 75 acres of parsnips on various parts of the estate. This includes 250 acres of crop on the Castle Acre farms, where a new 12 million gallon reservoir has been built, in order to supply water to the crops. It is anticipated that further investment in water storage and supply infrastructure will be required if the business is to expand in future years.

 In general the crop is destined for the supermarket supply chain. Potatoes will be sold dirty, off the field as a whole crop, as will carrots and parsnips, all of which will be washed and packaged by our customers.