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A group of growers that previously called for AHDB Horticulture to be reprieved but restructured is now calling for the seemingly doomed organisation to be replaced. With the recent vote going against the continuation of the levy and Environment Secretary George Eustice promising to ”respect the outcome of that ballot”, the Growers’ Better Levy Group (GBLG) is determined to ensure it is replaced with a modernised but similarly levy-funded organisation. The group, which includes Kent growers Tom Hulme, of AC Hulme & Sons, and Marion Regan, of Hugh Lowe Farms, is calling for “a world leading service which returns significant and measurable benefits to levy paying investors in the challenging and fast evolving horticultural sector”. GBLG members are particularly concerned that growers – particularly smaller businesses - will struggle without a centralised organisation that can fund, promote and share research and development and support growers across the country. Tom Hulme pointed out: “Research is critical to the future of the industry”, adding that the fruit sector’s experience in tackling the threat posed by the spotted winged drosophila, which appeared in 2012 and attacked healthy fruit, was a good example of the need for co-ordinated, well-funded research.
REPLACEMENT LEVY
GROUP ESSENTIAL “We are now facing a similar threat from the brown marmorated stink bug,” he went on. “Without centralised research and a reliable delivery mechanism I fear for our ability to cope as an industry. Some of the larger growers may feel they can deal with these challenges themselves, but smaller ones will miss out. “The other problem is that without a well-funded central organisation paying for research to be carried out, the bodies that currently carry out this research will simply disappear, and then even the larger growers will have nowhere to turn. We need to protect our existing research capabilities and we need to do this via a centralised organisation. “The GBLG respects the outcome of the vote but feels that the ballot became a vote on the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board itself, rather than being about the levy. We believe that a properly structured new body with a similar remit but with more input from growers is essential
to the future of the sector. “The levy system needs modernising and it needs to be flexible. Any new organisation needs to be grower-led and transparent, but we have to find a way forward and we have to do it quickly. This is a critical period and we have to keep our research capability in place. We also need to continue business-critical work on plant protection products and services.” The GBLG, which sees itself as providing “independent, strategic thought leadership to unite the industry,” has suggested using a Statutory Instrument to create a body that can “deliver a system of co-operation for the benefit of all growers” and “inspire the wider industry to meet the enormous challenges that lie ahead”. It plans to canvass fellow growers and other stakeholders, including crop associations, research providers and government bodies, to evaluate views and identify a consensus position.
DECISION ON FUTURE ROLE The AHDB potato levy faces a similar fate to the horticulture levy after the sector also voted against its continuation. The yes/no vote on the continuation of a statutory levy in the sector began in mid-February on the basis of one levy payer, one vote. UK Engage, which again administered the process, has now revealed that the vote against continuing the levy was 66.4%, compared with 33.6% of growers and buyers who wanted it to continue. The overall voter turnout was 64 %, with 1,196 eligible votes cast.
APRIL 2021 | WWW.SOUTHEASTFARMER.NET
AHDB Chair Nicholas Saphir said he was “deeply disappointed”, adding: “The voting information reported by UK Engage shows that a clear majority of the potato industry feels they are not getting enough value from the current levy set-up. “It is now down to Ministers to weigh up all the various factors about the GB potato industry and make a decision on the future role of a statutory potato levy.”
