WITH THE levy-payer vote on the continued role of the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board now confirmed to take place in both the potato and horticultural sectors, growers have been urged to ‘make their vote count’.

With the 'one levy payer, one vote' system set to decide the fate of the AHDB’s ability to collect levies and conduct research and development, knowledge transfer, market analysis and promotion in the two sectors, a series of virtual ‘town hall’ meetings have been organised for early in the new year to help producers make an informed decision.

AHDB chair, Nicholas Saphir, has said that while his organisation did not underestimate the wide range of sentiments held by producers on its performance, he said it was important that levy payers understood the facts before the votes took place – including what would be lost if the levy was stopped.

The results of the ballots which will be conducted by an independent company will be submitted to the farming Ministers in England, Wales and Scotland, who will decide on the future of the statutory levy in the two areas.

However the English growers seeking to end the AHDB’s role in these sectors have retorted that the reforms promised by the board in its new strategy document have not gone far enough – and offered little for the horticultural and potato sectors.

The group has claimed that its own survey of over 650 growers had shown that 92% of respondents felt current policies were of ‘no or only marginal’ use to their businesses.

Potato grower and ballot co-organiser John Bratley, who grows between 220 and 280 ha of the crop each year, also claimed that 80% of respondents did not want to pay a statutory levy.

“Like many growers I receive little or no benefit from the levy and, as I am in competition with other growers, AHDB’s policy of ‘knowledge exchange’ for everyone means that any technical advice which will give me a competitive advantage has to come from elsewhere.”

Stating that potato growers currently pay £42.62 per planted hectare, with their customers paying a further 18.58 pence per tonne of the crop purchased, Bratley said that because the levy was paid on planted area, it did not reflect yields, crop losses or crops which failed to find a buyer.

“Like our colleagues in horticulture, potato growers are fed up with being forced to pay for an overly bureaucratic organisation which offers little or no benefit to professional growers who are increasingly working to secure a larger share of the same overall market,” he stated.

Claiming that AHDB failed to understand the commercial reality of how growers’ markets work, Bratley said that the consultation revealed no changes to the levy system for at least 18 months.

And he added that the strategy failed to recognise that if growers or their associations organised research themselves they would be entitled to 230% tax relief – a benefit which he said was lost to the industry with AHDB funding of R and D.