Written by Charlotte Cunningham
A ballot to decide the future of the AHDB Potato levy has concluded and the report has been passed to Ministers for a decision on what happens next, after a majority vote against the continuation of the levy. Charlotte Cunningham reports. The call for a ballot on the continuation of a statutory levy in the potato sector came late last year and a yes/no vote started in mid-Feb on the basis of one levy payer, one vote. An independent company, UK Engage, administered the vote process. The overall voter turnout was 64% with 1196 eligible votes cast. The No vote against the continuation of a levy was 66.4% versus the Yes vote of 33.6%. Voting analysis by UK Engage according to value of levy paid, showed a similar picture of 63.2% No votes vs Yes votes of 36.8%. Splitting the result into the two separate potato levies – the potato buyer levy and the potato grower levy – overall buyers voted 82.1% No and 17.9% Yes. The growers voted 64.3% No and 35.7% Yes. Deeply disappointed AHDB Chair Nicholas Saphir said: “I’m deeply disappointed. The voting information reported by UK Engage shows that a clear majority of the potato industry feels…
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