Forage scams

Update: 9 November 2026

Soil Association Certification has received further reports of:

• fraudulent adverts of organic forage

• scammers requesting deposits from farmers or payment before delivery

Scammers are now using valid organic certificates from legitimately certified farms. Simply checking the organic certificate will not necessarily identify that the sale is fraudulent. Take the steps below to protect your business.

What is the scam?

Fraudsters are targeting farms who advertise for organic forage and contacting them, often requesting deposits for the forage before it is supplied, but not providing any forage afterwards. They are also providing organic certificates and other forged documents such as forage analysis.

What you can do

1. Contact the vendor directly

If you suspect an offer of organic forage is fraudulent because:

• you are being asked for payment to secure stocks of forage before delivery

• you are unsure that the sender is from a certified organic business

You can contact the supplier directly, rather than using the email or phone number given to you. You can verify the contact details for organic farms by checking their website, Google, Companies House website, or by contacting their organic certification body.

2. Check organic status

If your business is contacted by someone offering organic forage for sale, please make sure you contact the relevant control body that certifies the farm to check that it is legitimate. You can check the validity of a Soil Association Certified farm's organic certificate and address by using our certificate checker.

3. Report scammers

Trading standards

Let your local Trading Standards office know if you encounter a scammer trying to sell fraudulent organic forage. They are responsible for confirming the organic credential of operations for consumers.

You can also report suspected fraud to the Police: Report Fraud.

Soil Association Certification

Please let us know if you encounter a scammer trying to sell fraudulent organic forage or if you are concerned about an organic forage advertisement on our online marketplace.

Please email farming.growing@soilassociation.org or call us on 0117 914 2412 if you have any questions.

Organic Marketplace

We manually check every advert placed on our online marketplace, and will try to ensure that any organic forage advertised for sale will be from legitimate sources. However, Soil Association Certification cannot accept responsibility for any transactions, products, livestock, or services advertised through our website.