AHDB levy roundup

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.

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.”

Campaigners who rallied fellow growers to vote against the compulsory levy on horticulture have reacted angrily to suggestions that growers could still be charged a levy for the 2021/22 fi nancial year.

The so-called AHDB Petitioners are concerned at industry speculation that the amount of Parliamentary time required to amend the statutory instrument means that the legal basis for the compulsory levy may not be repealed before the end of the current fi nancial year.

One of the three, Simon Redden, commented: “Despite receiving an income from growers of around £7 million last year and sitting on reserves of £5 million, AHDB Horticulture is now suggesting that it needs another £7 million from hard-pressed growers to wind-up its operations, at a time when some of the largest names in horticultural production are sadly closing their businesses or completely changing their cropping patterns to cope in an increasingly cut-throat sector.

“It is not as if AHDB have not been aware that the vote could see the abolition of the levy. If they don’t have contingency plans to this eff ect, it further questions the validity of an organisation

Environment Secretary George Eustice appears to have sounded the death knell for AHDB Horticulture, despite eff orts by board chairman Nicholas Saphir to throw it a lifeline.

The national ballot on the future of the compulsory levy by which the horticulture arm of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board is funded produced a 61% to 39% vote in favour of scrapping it.

Poll organisers UK Engage, though, then analysed the vote according to the value of levy paid, suggesting that by this measure 57% of those taking part wanted it to continue.

While Mr Saphir said that this diff erent interpretation highlighted “a very complex picture”, Mr Eustice made his position clear when he told the annual National Farmers’ Union online conference

ANGER TOWARDS

LEVY SUGGESTIONS

that continually lectures farmers and growers on becoming more commercial.” Vegetable grower Peter Thorold described it as “no more than a cynical ploy by the AHDB to try and cling to power for another year when growers have voted to abolish their sector.

“The fact that AHDB waited for 3½ months from our request for a ballot before instigating the ballot was just a foot dragging exercise, and this latest action suggests that AHDB is simply unable to accept the clear ‘no’ vote by levy payers.”

DEATH KNELL SOUNDED

that the vote against the levy had been clear.

He told delegates he would be making “a swift decision” on the AHDB ballot “in the coming weeks”, continuing: “It is pretty clear there is a very straight result. Some of the larger horticultural producers were more supportive of maintaining the current turnover levy, but there was a clear majority against, so we will respect the outcome of that ballot.” Spalding-based fl ower grower Simon Redden, one of the growers who called for a no vote on the horticulture levy, welcomed Mr Eustice’s comments. “It is refreshing to hear someone agree with us that the result of the ballot, in which 61% of growers voted to abolish the levy, is straightforward,” he said. “Since the result was published, too many people have tried to spin the result based on the amount of levy paid, something which we are pleased to see DEFRA has not tried to do.” Mr Eustice confi rmed that while some AHDB services may be retained for those who want them, the current compulsory levy on all horticultural businesses would end. He said: “There are things that the AHDB does that are widely valued by the horticulture sector, particularly their work on authorisations. We’re exploring a range of diff erent options so we can keep those elements.”

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