AHDB Board member vacancies for Horticulture and Potato sectors fail to mention the ballot

The situation at AHDB is quickly turning into a Pantomime and total chaos.
 
Whilst checking the situations vacant suitable for an antagonistic outspoken dairy industry commentator Ian noticed AHDB have six board positions up for grabs with applications due in last Friday
 
One of the AHDB vacancies is aiming to attract a Potato levy payer for a 3-year term committing to 3 days a month commencing June 2021 with the possibility of a further 3-year term mentioned. No mention is made in the advert of the recent producer ballots in which both Potato and Horticulture levy payers voted No to the continuation of levy payments resulting in AHDB loosing 24% of its total levy income. With scores of people working in HR it wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to amend the advert!
 
Surely the minister, George Eustice, saying he will endorse and respect the producer ballots should automatically translate to AHDB having no requirement to recruit for either sector given they are both heading for the history books within the year.
 
In the advert AHDB refer to the challenges AHDB faces, well they don’t come much bigger than trying to exit a long lease on a new purpose-built building at Stoneleigh or subletting most or all of the building, paying a minimum of 100 plus redundancies and pensions for the staff involved in the two ditched sectors. On the staff front many of the good people at AHDB appear to be jumping ship claiming their only source of information comes from the minister’s media coverage in particular a recent Farmers Weekly podcast interview! Staff claim they are in the dark and concerned   how work will be handled including third party contracts.
 
Loosing 24% of its levy income and two out of 6 sectors is a game changer for AHDB and there is a growing number of people in beef and lamb convinced that ballot would be lost if it took place. Maybe a 1970s model of statutory levies just isn’t fit for a modern-day industry. Either way, one wonders with so much balloting action on the horizon, just how long the NFU, who claim to be the “UK’s largest representative body for agriculture and horticulture”
continue to sit on the fence and offer no leadership or strategy whatsoever on an issue so important to its 47,000 farmer members. For sure a slimmed down AHDB will have to change and if direction is not forthcoming very soon the organisation will continue to see its best staff jump ship.
 
As we understand it in the event AHDB have insufficient reserves to settle its liabilities HM Treasury have to bridge the gap with taxpayer’s funds. That won’t improve the Ministers popularity with Treasury. 
 
So far as a dairy levy ballot is concerned, anticipated in 2022, it will be a monumental challenge given AHDB do not hold individual producers contact details relying exclusively on milk buyers to collect the levy on behalf of AHDB. 
 
Government will not find the demise of AHDB and the Horticulture and Potato sector no votes an easy or cheap divorce settlement and remember the ultimate decision-making falls to the minister. It’s starting to look like total chaos and a reputational risk to DEFRA if they fail to play the limited number of cards they have correctly.