Every job posted through Emmerdale Agriculture so far has been in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Every contractor in the network is here too: more than 400 of them, across all 99 counties and districts of the UK. That is where we started, and for now it is where we work.
But the questions keep coming from further away. People in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand find our notes on harrowing, subsoiling and topping, read to the end, and then try to post a job or join as a contractor. Until this week the site had no good answer for them. It asked them to pick a UK county.
Now it asks them where they are instead.
What we have opened
A short page, Outside the UK? Tell us where you are, for anyone with land work to be done, or anyone who does land work, somewhere we do not yet cover. You tell us your country, which side of the fence you are on, and what you do or what you need. That is all.
We are not promising a date. We are promising that the places people ask about are the places we open first, and that the people who asked hear before anyone else.
How we will decide where to go
The honest answer is that the waiting list decides. A marketplace only works with both sides present, and a customer's job in County Cork is no use if there is nobody in Cork to price it. So the order is:
- Enough people ask. Once a single country has a few dozen registrations, we start building for it.
- Contractors first. We open sign-up to contractors in that country and invite the ones who registered. Nobody gets to post a job there until there are enough contractors to make it worth their while.
- Then customers. Jobs open once the network can answer them.
Ireland is the obvious first candidate. Same language, same words for the same work, same machinery. Australia and New Zealand are next in line, where the kit is familiar even if the seasons are upside down.
What will be different abroad
The job itself will work the way it does here: you describe the work, local contractors send sealed prices, you pick one, and we put you in touch. Prices will be in the local currency, and we will take our time learning how the work is priced in each country before we assume anything.
Our insurance cover and the checks we run on UK contractors are UK arrangements. They will not apply abroad at first, and we will say so plainly on every job rather than imply otherwise.
If you are in the UK
Nothing changes. Describe your job and it goes to vetted contractors in your county the same day, or join the network if you have a tractor and want the work.
If you are not
Tell us where you are. It takes under a minute, and it is the single most useful thing you can do to bring the service to your part of the world.