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.

 

[AHDB]

Source: James Fanshawe

Question: It’s all very well talking about what marketing techniques are used. But still almost every day one of the major newspapers says eat less meat, meat is bad for the environment. Obviously your messaging is not getting through so it must be judged ineffective.

Answer:

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

We are fighting a different number of challenges on different fronts. The advertising and the marketing we deliver are just one of many channels. There’s also misinformation, policy discussions, challenges we have around GWP100 vs GWP* and we’ve got the challenge around the Advertising Standards Authority and agendas with certain newspapers. A reader of the Guardian is three times more likely to be reducing their meat consumption. The earnest work behind the scenes, including what’s happening on farm, is what’s going to change the narrative. The science is starting to catch up.

The message being seen in major newspapers is being paid for by people with a vested interest in getting people on to plant-based foods, but when you look at the consumption patterns of beef and lamb in the UK and worldwide, it’s not changing very much. So, their message is not getting through. There is some drop off in consumption at the moment and that’s mainly in regard to price and that’s economic circumstances. We’re doing a lot of work behind the scenes, but the science is starting to move in our direction. The really important thing is we’ve got to have evidence for the claims we make, otherwise they will be taken down, they’ll break advertising standards rules, and we won’t have any credibility.

 

[AHDB]

Source: Anonymous

Question: Why do AHDB, HCC and QMS all have separate stands at Anuga? Can’t you work together and save everyone levy?

Answer:

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

We actually do it together. We will meet with the chief execs of HCC and QMS on a four-weekly basis and we work together in quite a few areas. It’s really important for us that we aren’t duplicating each others’ work. For a lot of the trade shows we might have distinct areas where we are talking about our specifics, but it’s all done together which is really important.

We’ve all got slightly different takes on the marketing with a slightly different story.

 

[AHDB]

Source: Anonymous

Question: You said in the introduction that, “Eat Balanced has reached 43 million adults”. Unfortunately you’ve reached those people with the WRONG information. When will you update ALL your methane emissions figures across your website? The BFU/TFF group has managed to get a ‘methane page’ on there but you are still basing much of your information on GWP 100 instead of GMP*.

Answer:

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

GWP100 and GWP* are two different methodologies in terms of measuring impact and the difference is that they tackle methane in a different way. GWP100 doesn’t take into account that methane from livestock emissions is part of a natural cycle. We’ve been working with the BFU/TFF group but we’ve got to bear in mind that the IPCC are reporting in a certain way at the moment and that means that to be able to make comparisons there are some things that we have no option on because there is no comparable data. We are working towards dual reporting, but we have to build the evidence base and can’t do that overnight.

There are regulations in place and nowhere are they tighter than in paid advertising. There are things we can say and there are things if we want to say we have to prove them. Right now, it’s built around the national inventory, GWP100, which allows us to say we’re one of the most sustainable in the world and that’s the message we’re delivering, that British Lamb and Beef is some of the most sustainably produced in the world. That for consumers, through our testing, is the thing that ticks their box more than getting into the weeds of methane. So what’s important to the farmer audience, we find, isn’t necessarily as important to consumers.

We do a lot of work in terms of testing the impact of different messages. There’s high level messages around ‘one of the most sustainable in the world’ that consistently test well. But when you get to the granularity of methane, water use and land change, consumer interest wanes. There is a place for it but in terms of a headline advert, not.

 

[AHDB]

Source: Rich Heady – mixed beef and arable farmer in North Bucks

Question: What changes are going on to improve the efficiency of AHDB from the inside. We understand that levies have to rise as farm costs are rising but what changes are going on internally to keep the AHDB lean and efficient in these times.

Answer:

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

We’ve moved from an office that held around 400 people to one that holds 130 – that’s saving us around £600,000 a year. We made a commitment two years ago, on the back of moving out of Horticulture and Potatoes, that we would look to save £8m but actually £2m of that wasn’t from Horticulture and Potatoes but from making efficiency savings ourselves such as reducing senior management.

We’re very focused on what levy payers asked – Reputation of the Industry, Exports and Marketing. We’re very focused on those and all the evidence to underpin that work. We’re partnering with people in order to maximise that levy spend, for example export money where we’re working with exporters and asking them what they want us to do in markets to maximise their ability to go out and sell product.

 

[AHDB]

Source: Anonymous

Question: Why is the livestock market data moving away from AHDB and what impact will it have on your analysis?

Answer:

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

At the moment, from LAA data we calculate the liveweight prices and put them on our website and deal with them being put on the back of Farmers Weekly and Farmers Guardian. LAA want to take that and commercialise it more. We realised as a levy board we weren’t able to do that in the way they wanted.

 

[AHDB]

Source: Anonymous

Question: How do AHDB support the medium and small processing sector?

Answer:

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

It has been about scale in the industry for the last however many years because margins have been tight, but those smaller processors are really valuable because they have to extract a higher value from what they do. They bring innovation to the sector and if we need to work with them more closely, we will do.

 

[TFF]

AHDB levy rate increases in four sectors receive Ministerial approval

Levy rate increases proposed by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) for the Beef and Lamb, Cereals and Oilseeds, Dairy and Pork sectors have received approval from Ministers in Defra and the Devolved Administrations.

The new rates will be implemented from April 2024 and allow AHDB to maintain its focus on delivering the objectives set out in the Sector Plans, published in November 2022.

With no increase to the levy in the Beef & Lamb and Cereals & Oilseeds sectors for more than 10 years and no change in over 20 years for Dairy and Pork, the spending power of levy funds over the past decade has been reduced by up to 40%.

AHDB Chair Nicholas Saphir said: “We are pleased Ministers have approved the proposals, which will ensure the levy continues to support the work AHDB has committed to prioritising for farmers and processors across all the sectors we serve.

“The new rates will allow us to enhance our key activity whether, for example, that involves growing export opportunities or exploring further marketing campaigns in the Beef and Lamb, Dairy and Pork sectors as well as increasing our research offering to Cereals and Oilseeds producers.

“Levy payers can be assured that our commitment to helping them navigate through an unprecedented period of change for the industry is secure and we will continue to listen to their feedback to ensure we are delivering real value for money.”

The Government has also agreed that Nicholas Saphir will serve a further 12 months as AHDB Chair.

The extension to Mr Saphir’s appointment means he will remain in the role until 31 March 2025.


Approved changes to levy rates from April 2024

Beef and Lamb (levy rate last set in 2011)

Cattle (excluding Calves) Calves
Producer – £4.05 to £5.06/head of cattle Producer – £0.08 to £0.10/head of cattle
Slaughterer/Exporter – £1.35 to £1.69/head of cattle Slaughterer/Exporter – £0.08 to £0.10/head

Lamb
Producer – £0.60 to £0.75/head of sheep Slaughterer/Exporter – £0.20 to £0.25/head of sheep

Cereals and Oilseeds (levy rate last set in 2011)

Cereal grower – 46.00p/tonne to 58p/t Cereal buyer – 3.80p/t to 4.80p/t
Cereal processor (human/industrial) – 9.50p/t to 12p/t Cereal processor (feed) – 4.60p/t to 5.80p/t
Oilseeds – 75 p/t to 94 p/t

Dairy (set more than 20 years ago)

Dairy farmer – 0.06p/litre to 0.08p/l

Pork (levy rate last set in 1996)

Pig producer – £0.85 to £1.02 Pig processor – £0.20 to £0.24