Fresh Start for Levy Boards welcomed by TFA

The Tenant Farmers Association has welcomed DEFRA’s announcement that there is to be some fresh thinking before the review of the agricultural levy bodies is finalised.

Speaking before the Royal Show the TFA’s National Chairman Reg Haydon said “The Tenant Farmers Association is pleased that DEFRA has decided not to follow simply the framework set out in the report prepared by Rosemary Radcliffe in establishing the new body - ‘Levy Board UK’. The TFA was concerned that she did not deal with some of the fundamental issues affecting levy boards. The ‘Fresh Start’ approach will now allow these to be tackled. The TFA looks forward to being involved in the ongoing discussions through DEFRA’s Steering Group upon which the TFA will be represented by its Chief Executive, George Dunn”.

An important area to tackle is the State Aid Rules of the EU. The TFA believes that a large portion of the levy board’s work should be about assisting and facilitating marketing of British products to British consumers. If this is to be thwarted by State Aid Rules then strategies to avoid those restrictions need to be found.

“The TFA wants to see more effort in helping farmers to market their own produce through training programmes, workshops, production of marketing resources and grant aiding projects to produce brands and local marketing initiatives. We must deal with the crucial issue that farmers who pay levies assume that promotion and research are being taken care of wholly by others. As we move into an increasingly unsubsidised and global market farmers will need to be encouraged to do more of both. Levy Board UK should have a primary role in facilitating those activities at farm level.” said Mr Haydon.

“There will continue to be a role for the provision of timely, accessible information to levy payers on market conditions, market prices, product information and benchmarking data along with crucial research in areas which the private sector is either ignoring or where the returns are too far away for commercial players to make a sensible decision to invest in such research.” said Mr Haydon.

“Levy Board UK should ensure that its sector companies become champions in promoting their sector not just to the public but also to policy makers and other bodies. The sector companies should work alongside existing farming organisations in forwarding this work.” said Mr Haydon.