AHDB consults on its strategic plan
AHDB consults on its strategic plan
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) will this week (Friday 16th November) launch a consultation with industry stakeholders on its corporate plan 2013-16.
The consultation runs from 16th November 2012 to 11th January 2013 and includes a recommendation for the levy rates for the six AHDB sectors to remain unchanged from the existing 2012/13 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 to deliver 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 29th January 2013 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, as well as being as efficient as we can be ourselves in how we undertake this work.
“There is clear evidence that more efficient businesses are more environmentally and economically sustainable. The work we do to improve business margins and productivity is also helping to deliver the environmental goods expected from agriculture and horticulture.
“Our corporate plan summarises how we propose to make a difference – on areas such as soils, animal health, export market development, in schools and with skills in the industry.”
