Boosting the local economy by nearly £10 million a year has helped clinch a national award for a booming Bradford farm and shop business.

Keelham Farm Shop in Thornton has been named Non-Multiple Retailer of the Year in the 2010 Food and Farming Industry Awards.

The shop sells more than £3m of Yorkshire produce to around 8,000 customers a week. Research by Oxfam showed that for every £1 spent on local produce, £3 is returned to the local economy. Competition judges said that based on its sales, Keelham generated nearly £10m Brother and sister directors James and Victoria Robertshaw collected their prize from agriculture minister Jim Paice at the House of Commons.

The judges noted that in 2009 Keelham supported more than 70 local and Yorkshire food and drink suppliers and this had grown to over 200 in 2010.

The farm was developing a specialist sheep-breeding programme, with plans to produce up to 2,000 lambs a year for sale through the farm shop.

It has also launched a ‘swap-shop’ for green-fingered customers to cash in on their surplus home-grown crops. Local growers were invited to exchange spare fruit and vegetables for vouchers to be spent in the shop.

The scheme brings together non-commercial gardeners with a surfeit of home-grown crops and customers looking for fresh local produce.

The home grown produce is sold in a special area of the shop.

The food and farming industry award is the latest success for the business which was highly commended in the 2010 Taste Yorkshire Awards for its home-made Yorkshire pork, rhubarb and mango sausages.

It was also a finalist for the second year running in a regional newspaper annual business awards and a finalist for the second consecutive year in the farm shop butchery category of the national Butcher’s Shop of the Year Awards run by the Meat Trades Journal.

Miss Robertshaw said: “It’s been another year of remarkable growth, development and diversification, during which we have continued to set new records in both customer numbers and turnover.

“We are now one of the most successful and progressive farm shops in the country.

“In a year of many highlights, this national award is the crowning glory, and the fact that Sainsbury’s was chosen as retailer of the year clearly demonstrates what exalted company we are keeping. This spectacular achievement can be put down to the efforts of the entire Keelham team.

“Importantly, our growing impact in the awards arena is also helping to significantly raise the profile of the area by putting Bradford and the wider Yorkshire region even more firmly on the national and international food maps.

“We are proud to play our part in promoting this wonderful county and its vast diversity of local producers and suppliers.”

Keelham’s awards windfall may not be over, as the shop is also a finalist in two more farm shop award categories from the National Farmers’ Retail & Markets Association. The winners will be announced in January.