The representation of the UK potato industry is set for a major overhaul next year, when the British Potato Council (BPC) will be replaced by the Potato Council Limited (PCL), and the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) will come into play.
The transition will be made on April 1.
The AHDB will centralise the functions of all levy boards - including those for cattle, sheep and pigs, milk, horticulture, cereals and oilseed, as well as potatoes - and have statutory power.
All the sector chairs will be on the AHDB board.
Professor Janet Bainbridge OBE, who has been a council member at the BPC for four years and has chaired the BPC R&D committee, will chair the PCL.
The first year will see a thorough consultation process. “We are developing our business plan and in the first year we will be fine-tuning, with an industry consultation to find out the views in the sector, find out what they want, their responses to the BPC, and what we could improve on,” Bainbridge said. “We are looking at and evaluating existing BPC projects.”
The end of the consultation could see the PCL relocate from the BPC’s current site in Oxford to Stoneleigh.
“We are working closely with the Horticultural Development Council and Home-grown Cereals, because many of our members produce both potatoes and cereals, and with other levy boards.”
Bainbridge said the transition will require effective change management. “I am very aware of the expertise in the BPC and the amount of hard work involved,” she told FPJ. “The big issue with change management is the impact on the staff and how we can mitigate that.
“I cannot say what the jobs will be in Stoneleigh until after the consultation,” she added.
But she is confident that the PCL will continue the work of the BPC. “We must keep this show on the road,” she told FPJ. “We can move forward and do things differently, and must embrace the huge opportunities that this move could bring.
“The most important thing is that we move the industry forward and continue to do this through research that is both practical and close to the market. It is a huge challenge of knowledge transfer, and we have to make sure that levy payers see results of the research.
“I want to take the sector forward and maintain the good work that the BPC has been doing and take advantage of the opportunities that the AHBD will bring,” she added.
BPC chairman David Walker, who will retire when the transition from BPC to PCL is made, told FPJ: “I would prefer to see this not as the end of an era because what we are doing is totally in line with what the industry needs at all levels, and the industry drives what we do. This is a natural, revolutionary process rather than an absolute change.
“The BPC has a tight remit, but the PCL will have the freedom to look at different things and this will bring new opportunities for the UK potato industry.”
The PCL will retain the existing green and yellow logo logo, which will be updated - in line with state aid rules - to read Potato Council Limited.
