Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is a statutory levy board, funded by farmers, growers and others in the supply chain and managed as an independent organisation (independent of both commercial industry and of Government). Our purpose is to make our agriculture and horticulture industries more competitive and sustainable through factual, evidence-based advice, information and activity.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Professional association
- Industry Type:
- Horticulture
- Market Focus:
- Nationally (across the country)
About Us
Serving the levy payer
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) is a statutory levy board, funded by farmers, growers and others in the supply chain and managed as an independent organisation (independent of both commercial industry and of Government).
Our purpose is to equip levy payers with independent, evidence-based information and tools to grow and become more competitive and sustainable.
What We Do
We deliver extensive research and development programmes which are delivering scientifically-robust and commercially useful outcomes for our levy payers;
- We undertake efficient farm-level knowledge transfer programmes based on evidence both from third party science and our own R&D aimed at improving efficiency, productivity and sustainability;
- We provide unbiased, high quality market information that helps business decision making and improves supply chain transparency;
- We do export market development work and also domestic marketing activity to inspire and inform consumers in order to assist the economic viability of sectors which require this;
- We raise awareness of food and where it comes from among school children; and help ensure the agriculture and horticulture industries are able to develop and attract workers with the skills needed to operate effectively.
- We also ensure that proper account is taken of Government priorities for agriculture and the agri-food industry, where appropriate.
Agricultural Sectors We Support
Levy payers are at the heart of what we do. Our delivery of services to them is focused on six sectors covering about 75% of total agricultural output in the UK:
- Pig meat in England – levy payer work branded as AHDB Pork
- Milk in Great Britain (GB) – levy payer work branded as AHDB Dairy
- Beef and lamb in England – levy payer work branded as AHDB Beef & Lamb
- Commercial horticulture in GB – levy payer work branded as AHDB Horticulture
- Cereals and oilseeds in the UK –levy payer work branded as AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds
- Potatoes in GB – levy payer work branded as AHDB Potatoes
AHDB also ensures that proper account is taken of Government priorities for agriculture and the agri-food industry, where appropriate.
Our Five Core Priorities
- To help levy payers to improve productivity, cost management and resource use efficiency (adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, managing soils, water and market volatility)
- To help levy payers to prevent and manage disease
- To develop markets (export development, promoting quality products to differentiate against imports, market information and analysis)
- To help levy payers to understand and adapt to the regulatory and policy environment
- To help levy payers to address labour market issues and skills development.
Funding and Structure
How we are funded:
The work of AHDB is funded by farmers, growers and others in the supply chain through statutory levies – not from central Government. The funds raised from each commodity sector are ring-fenced to ensure they are used only to the benefit of the sector from which they were raised.
Statutory Instrument:
The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Order 2008 (Statutory Instrument) defines the statutory functions of AHDB. A copy of the Statutory Instrument and a guidance note on it can be found via these links:
AHDB Strategic Plan:
AHDB publishes a three year Corporate Strategy. It includes the strategies and targets proposed by our six sector boards and also the levy rates required to deliver these plans.
AHDB Structure:
Our philosophy is that levy payers are at the heart of what we do. In order to deliver genuine levy payer focus there is a sector advisory committee (known as ‘sector board’) for each of the six commodity sectors represented by AHDB. Each sector board comprises levy payers, other stakeholders from the sector and independent members. The main AHDB Board has delegated the responsibility to each sector board to develop the most appropriate strategies to meet the challenges of the sector; to ensure the relevant levy rate is recommended in order to provide adequate funding for the required work; to monitor strategy implementation and to approve remedies where performance deviates from plan. The sector board members are appointed by AHDB.
The main AHDB Board consists of the chairman, the six chairs of the sector boards and three independent members. The main AHDB Board members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Defra, acting with Welsh Government Ministers, Scottish Ministers and the relevant Northern Ireland department. A diagram showing both the main Board members and sector advisory board members is available here.
The day-to-day management of AHDB is overseen by a Leadership Team led by the Chief Executive:
Commercial Subsidiaries:
There is also one commercially trading subsidiary within the AHDB group called Meat & Livestock Commercial Services Limited (MLCSL). It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AHDB and run as a separate company, limited by guarantee, supplying carcase classification and other services primarily to the meat and livestock sectors. All its costs are fully accounted for within the company and it returns any profits to AHDB to supplement levy funds.
Collectively, taking both the levy-funded and commercial operations plus grants, AHDB has an income in excess of £60 million and employs some 490 people (380 of these are levy-funded posts). More detailed income and budgetting information is contained in the back of the Corporate Plan.
Audit and Governance:
The AHDB levy income comes under Treasury rules for the governance of public money. The National Audit Office (NAO) is responsible for the external auditing of the AHDB accounts and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) acts as AHDB’s ‘sponsor’ Government department. The AHDB Accounting Officer is accountable to Defra Ministers and devolved administrations on the appropriate use of levy funds and corporate governance standards applicable to public bodies. A Management Statement and Financial Memorandum sets out the broad framework within which AHDB and Defra are required to operate in their relationship:
AHDB is firmly committed to openness, fairness and transparency in selecting all of its suppliers of goods and services. It must do this as a matter of law under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and this approach will also enable us to develop a ‘most economically advantageous’ supply system and maximise our use of levy funds.
To this end, the AHDB website includes a procurement area (see left-hand menu bar) that lists all current procurements and provides links to enable any potential supplier to establish whether it wants to participate and how to do so.
AHDB has Standard Terms and Conditions that apply to all its contracts (or agreements) for the purchase of Goods and Services. These may be updated at any time by publication on this website and contracts are made applying the version current at the time of contracting. Suppliers are responsible for keeping themselves aware of changes. The current version applies from August 2015.
Openness:
The Board of AHDB embraces the principles of openness and is committed to publishing information on this website about its board meetings, its corporate plan and its annual performance. It has developed a Publications Scheme as part of its compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (2000) and this sign-posts people to a wide range of information published by AHDB and its sector organisations.
Background to AHDB:
On 28 June 2006, Jeff Rooker, Minister for Sustainable Food and Farming, together with Devolved Ministers, announced that five levy bodies (the British Potato Council, the Meat and Livestock Commission, the Milk Development Council, the Horticultural Development Council and the Home Grown Cereals Authority) should be radically restructured and replaced by one statutory levy board on 1 April 2008.
Separate announcements were made by Ministers in the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government concerning the future of the meat bodies: Quality Meat Scotland and Hybu Cig Cymru.
- Defra news release on restructuring 288/06 (28 June 2006)
- Written Parliamentary statement (28 June 2006)
The announcement followed an independent review of the five statutory levy bodies in 2005 by Rosemary Radcliffe and an industry consultation:
- Review of the Agricultural and Horticultural Levy Bodies: final report (PDF 970 KB)
- Executive summary (PDF 50 KB)
- Radcliffe news release (11 Nov 2005)
- Defra news release on consultation 521/05 (11 Nov 2005)
The predecessor levy boards were dissolved by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Order 2008 which replaced them with a new body named the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).
It was confirmed in December 2007 that AHDB would be co-located in Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire.