The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has today(TUES) launched an eight week consultation with levy payers, other industry stakeholders and trade associations on its Corporate Plan 2012-15.
The consultation runs from 22 November 2011 to 17 January 2012 and includes an AHDB Board recommendation to increase the AHDB levy rate for potatoes in Great Britain. In 2010, AHDB introduced a three year programme of small incremental potato levy increases and this is the final 3% increase to allow growth in potato levy-payer-facing activities. The levy rates for the other five AHDB sectors are recommended to remain unchanged from the existing 2011/12 rates.
The AHDB Purpose is ’to make our industries more competitive and sustainable’. It delivers against this through a series of strategies encompassing research and development and farm-level knowledge transfer/exchange; the provision of essential market information to improve supply chain transparency and business decision making; marketing and trade market programmes to help stimulate demand and to maintain and develop export markets.
The work in the Plan is funded by statutory levies paid by farmers and growers and others in the supply chain. These levy rates must be approved annually by Defra and Devolved Administration ministers.
The AHDB Board will consider the consultation responses at its meeting on 31 January 2012 before submitting its final Corporate Plan, including recommended levy rates, to UK Ministers.
AHDB Chief Executive Tom Taylor said: ’Our strategies are all about helping to make our levy payers’ businesses more competitive and sustainable and being as efficient as we can be ourselves in how undertake this work.
’I believe that better co-operation, partnerships and co-ordination between providers of on-farm science into practice will be a critical factor if we are to get the majority of poorer performing farmer/grower businesses to a level where they can profitably meet the significant challenges that lie ahead.
’In addition, it is important that the solutions we find for our industries to become more ’sustainable’ must also improve business margins and productivity. ’
The GB Potato levy increase is the third incremental increase which allows growth in levy-payer activities. In 2010, wide potato industry support was received for a three year programme of ’little and often’ potato levy increases to maintain essential Potato Council service delivery demanded by growers and their industry customers to meet the challenges ahead. Prior to 2010 the GB Potato levy rate had remained unchanged for 8 years. This recommended increase of 3% for 2012/13 would result in area levy being set at ’42.62/ha for producers who grow 3ha or more and 18.58p/tonne for purchasers; those purchasing over 1000 tonnes/yr.
