Ask AHDB – Beef and Lamb Levy Increase Proposals

[TFF]

AHDB’s Beef and Lamb Sector Council would like your questions about proposals to improve services and deliver more by increasing levy rates from the start of the 2024/25 financial year.

Sector Chair Colin Bateman will be taking part in a Q and A session, responding to questions from levy payers, at AHDB’s ‘Funding Your Future’ livestream event on 9 November.

Colin is an upland livestock producer with more than 25 years’ experience in the beef and lamb sector. His farming business runs to 340Ha and he has a particular interest in building future proof, resilient livestock systems.

You can find out details of the proposals for the Beef and Lamb Sector here: Funding Your Future 2023 – Beef & Lamb | AHDB

The Sector Council are proposing an increase in levy rates to:

• Gaining access to growing export markets
• Hosting more trade missions to promote British red meat to international buyers
• Extra consumer marketing campaigns
• Increasing education work with schools
• Highlighting the low environmental impact of production

The Beef and Lamb Live Q and A session will start at 14:00 GMT on 9 November. Any questions not responded to on the day will be answered after the event and shared in this thread.

 

[Muckmister]

Year on year beef and sheep farmers are getting shafted and working on reduced margins, why do AHDB think its justified to increase their slice of the cake on the backdrop of farmers struggling? I agree with the other comment where it can only be justified if we see concrete results in an increased sale price for the farmers which will see our margins increase by the same percentage increase as the levy, they have failed to date to secure our market prices are kept in line with inflation and most likely will fail in the future. Its more likely to be used for further bureaucracy and red tape to bow down to the false narrative that farmers are destroying the planet as they attempt to appease the vegan movement who will never be our target market anyway.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

If the ahdb is so concerned about rising costs, why doesn't it make better use of the farming forum which is free to use?

 

[soapsud]

The beef and lamb board has said that EU competition rules prevent it from promoting British meat over foreign imports. Some of us levy payers don't want to support an organisation that doesn't support them. Some of us are campaigning against AHDB because of your lacklustre marketing record. Once we have enough people on side, your future will be doubtful. What will you do to keep levy payers from getting organised to vote against you and your intended levy increase?

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

What's the procedure for organising a vote on the future of ahdb?

 

[Hesstondriver]

How do ADHB plan to aid the marketing of non RT Beef & Lamb ?

What measures are they putting in place to prevent WLA?

What is currently being done by ADHB to plan for a 'life after Red Tractor' ?

 

[Grass And Grain]

P

AHDB spend a lot of effort disseminating production and efficiency advice down to farmers. That's great, but we've probably exhausted the big issues, and now it's marginal gains.

What we need is strength in numbers when we're selling.

Would AHDB consider creating contract/price negotiating groups for farmers to join.

e.g. everyone who supplies beef direct to ABP... AHDB could help get all those farm in a so glad negotiating group.

If AHDB won't do this, then why not?

^^^^ This is the kind of thing we're most desperately in need of. Readdressing the balance of power in the supply chain.

 

[Mickstup]

After we have listened to this Q and A broadcast, if we feel the AHDB is unable or unwilling to support all livestock enterprises, assured and unassured in the future, will advice be given on a mechanism that will allow for a vote on the future of the AHDB.

 

[CiderJan]

I do appreciate what AHDB do that is genuinely different but consider that there is savings to be made by not replicating services already offered commercially within the industry. For example running discussion groups etc. Whilst this continues, I question that they have truly tried to make all efficiencies possible before implementing a price increase?

I would like to know what attempts have been made to find alternative sources of income outside of the farmer levy?

Also I think that the abattoirs and supermarkets etc. benefit from a great deal of AHDB work e.g. finding export markets, advertising etc. but pay 25% of what we pay as farmers. Why do they not pay the same per animal as us farmers?

 

[Annie]

AHDB's Beef & Lamb levy proposal Q & A session is now LIVE. Watch here on The Farming Forum.

 

[AHDB]

The series of questions and answers from the event will now be added to this thread for reference.

 

[AHDB]

Source: Video – Tim Phipps – mixed farmer Northants

Question: Will there be any plans to review the levy on a more regular basis to allow for greater resilience for the year on year AHDB funding?

Answer:

Answered at live event: Beef & Lamb: Funding Your Future - YouTube

The levy should have probably gone up in the past, but we are at a critical junction now for the B&L sector. There’s a massive amount of opportunity but there is also a reducing amount of subsidy coming into our farms. We’ve got to get together, start backing ourselves and investing in our own future. The reality is that nobody else is going to do it for us. That’s what the levy is about – investing in the future of the sector.

My hope is in the future we can find a slightly more flexible way of dealing with the levy. If, for example, we get into markets and there is a new opportunity, we can go out to levy payers and say ‘this is an opportunity, it requires this amount of investment to capitalise on it and this is the return that’s going to come back to the sector’. But we are where we are, it’s set out in legislation how the levy increase has to be activated, so we have to follow the process.

 

[AHDB]

Source: Ian Farrant – beef farmer Herefordshire

Question: Is the levy really enough to market our products worldwide? If there is such huge opportunities globally, will you not require a larger marketing budget?
Will there be any plans to review the levy on a more regular basis to allow for greater resilience for the year on year AHDB funding?

Answer:

Answered at live event: Beef & Lamb: Funding Your Future - YouTube

We are already in conversation with the sector council about how the opportunity of a larger budget might manifest, and it’s really clear that we have dependencies with the work we do between different life stages – from educating consumers of the future, all the way up to post-family but also all the work we do on the domestic market has an absolute direct correlation to how we go out and be more competitive overseas. Having more funding to do work here benefits not just more red meat sold domestically but also more opportunities overseas.

 

[AHDB]

why don't the AHDB cut their cloth we as farmers are always being told to make savings cut cost blah blah but we can't get a increase's in line with inflation we are just a bloody cash cow for all you hangers on. make savings cut some wages don't look on us to keep you going .

AHDB have been driving significant savings over the last two years. Reducing spend by over £8m (£5m due to the wind up of Hort & Potatoes), we continue to look where saving can be made however without an increase in the levy some of the key work we deliver such as Exports and Marketing will have to be reduced. The levy has been at the same level for over 12 years and that has seen a 40% reduction in spending power.

 

[AHDB]

Well said!! Grieves me to see their levy taken off on the bottom of my print out, when I’ve had to take what’s given by the buyers in market!! All you hear off the buyers is ‘there’s no demand, export jobs knackered, the lambs too dear’!! We as farmers have the hardest part of the system, producing and rearing a product for everyone else to sell, the system relies on us to keep producing the goods yet we’re shafted at every opportunity!! Everyone else passes on their increased costs to us that we have to stomach but our price received stays the same or less relatively! The levy wants spending on getting more of a market for our own meat products in our own country aswell as upping export opportunities that supposedly have opened up to us in other countries!! Some prime time advertising wouldn’t go a miss and some positive messages about the good environmental work we as farmers do!!

About 70% of the levy income is spent on Exports (opening markets, promotion in market and joining up importing and exporting businesses) and Marketing (campaigns across TV, social, print, press) which also includes our Education activity (Education | AHDB). The focus is on the areas that you highlight. The other work we do supports this activity with evidence and collateral that enables us to improve the reputation of red meat and drive positive messages.

 

[AHDB]

Why don't you award Basis or Nroso CPD points with your annual paper or online publications please?

If you would like to follow up on this question, we would be happy to have a conversation about where we have linked some of our work with CPD points but we would need to understand exactly what you mean.

 

[AHDB]

I've another question none of these will get asked
when can we have a vote like the Potatoe boys

Answered at live event: Beef & Lamb: Funding Your Future - YouTube

The mechanism to call a ballot is in place if 5% of levypayers write in within a set time period. Details are on the website.

 

[AHDB]

Suppose an increase is agreed, where will the extra money be spent?

What has AHDB stopped as a result of reduced funding? How was that decided? What was the impact, if any?

The areas of increased spend will be in line with what levy payers told us they wanted in ‘Shape the Future’. The sector council will have the final decision on where funding goes. However, Marketing and Exports will be key areas of investment along with the Education work we are building.

 

[AHDB]

When will the AHDB realise putting adverts in the farmers weekly and farmers guardian about how wonderful our produce is might just be a massive waste of money because we already know!!!! Advertise too somebody that doesn’t already know preaching too the converted with very very expensive articles

We don’t advertise produce to farmers. Our marketing is aimed at consumers and the specific groups of consumers that we are likely to have an impact on.

We do offer content for articles to the farming press and use the expertise of our brilliant teams where it offers an impact to levy payers.

During the levy increase conversations, we have placed advertorials from each of the sectors in the farming press to let levy payers know what is happening. We felt that it was only right to spread the message as wide as possible so that as many people as possible knew what is going on. We also know that the farming press is where some levy payers get their information from. If we hadn’t done that then we would have been accused of trying to hide it away.

 

[AHDB]

Why do you need more money, why can't you just become more efficient like you keep telling us to be ?

We never tell people what to do, we want to help levy payers in every way we can and then it is a choice if you interact with our services. AHDB have been driving significant savings over the last two years. Reducing spend by over £8m (£5m due to the wind up of Hort & potatoes), we continue to look where savings can be made. However without an increase in the levy some of the key work we deliver such as Exports and Marketing will have to be reduced. The levy has been at the same level for over 12 years and that has seen a 40% reduction in spending power.

 

[AHDB]

Can you start working with schools teaching them how to cook properly with proper meat, cooking proper meals?

Answered at live event: Beef & Lamb: Funding Your Future - YouTube

We’ve already started. We’ve been working with primary and secondary schools for about 8 years. We have an online resource as part of a partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation which has thousands of different resources for teachers, including hundreds of recipes and videos of cooking and cooking practices because we recognise, to the point around proper meat, budgetary challenges in school are a real barrier. We have started a pilot this year with 50 schools where we are getting free red meat into those schools so they can cook in the classroom.

Also check out our Food a Fact of Life campaign here: Free education resources for teaching young people aged 3-16 years about where food comes from, cooking and healthy eating, and teacher training. - Food A Fact Of Life

There’s a lot of information which we put into schools to give them nutritional understanding in the classroom.