The Truth About Charcoal — Ouse Valley Charcoal

The charcoal in your barbecue may have travelled further than the food you're cooking.

Ouse Valley Charcoal began with a simple aim: to make excellent charcoal for cooking. But as we learned more about how charcoal is produced around the world, something became impossible to ignore.

Much of the charcoal sold in the UK travels thousands of miles before it ever reaches a barbecue. In many cases it comes from regions where woodland is being cleared to supply the international charcoal trade.

Charcoal is one of the least transparent products sold in UK supermarkets.

For something that is simply burnt for cooking, the supply chain behind charcoal is remarkably opaque.

Three facts

Three facts about charcoal most people never hear.

90,000tonnes / yr

The UK imports enormous quantities

Over 90,000 tonnes of charcoal are imported into the UK every year, much of it travelling thousands of miles before reaching a British barbecue.

3major exporters

Much comes from tropical regions

Major exporting countries include Nigeria, Namibia and Paraguay. In some regions, charcoal production has been linked to woodland clearance and environmental degradation.

0origin required

Often no declared country of origin

Charcoal does not have to display its country of origin on the packaging, making it difficult to know where it has come from or how it was produced.

A different way

Charcoal that travels miles, not oceans.

Ouse Valley Charcoal is produced beside the River Great Ouse using timber from the surrounding landscape and from local arborists.

Instead of travelling across oceans, our charcoal travels just a few miles. Instead of anonymous supply chains, we know exactly where the wood comes from and how the charcoal is produced.

Because when it comes to charcoal, knowing where it comes from should matter.

A drum loaded with locally-sourced timber, ready to char in the retort beside the river

Our alternative

The next bag of charcoal you buy could come from the next field over.

Browse our charcoal

Sources

International Trade Centre (ITC)
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Earthworm Foundation
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Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC)