AHDB cereals and oilseeds: income and expenditure

Income

Cereals income (levy and non-levy) for the financial year 2020/21 is estimated to be £11.2 million. In the context of AHDB’s total estimated income, this compares as follows:

Expenditure

Our planned expenditure in cereals and oilseeds for this financial year (2020/21) is £11.6 million. This is slightly higher than estimated income for the 2020/21 financial year, as agreed with the cereals & oilseeds board.

Research (37%)

Our largest investment of levy funds is in applied research, focused on providing practical outcomes for levy payers and agronomists. This includes our work on the Recommended Lists and wider research into pest, weed and disease management, you can read more about our research programme in our Arable Review.

Our work also includes the soil biology and soil health partnership and nutrient management guide (RB209) to provide guidance directly to levy payers on a range of technical topics.

Knowledge Exchange (20%)

Our Knowledge Exchange team are a levy payers first point of contact for support and enquiries, helping put AHDB and externally funded developments directly into farmers hands. The team create and deliver regionally relevant technical events, facilitating farmer to farmer learning through farm meetings, workshops, and digital webinars. They also facilitate our monitor and strategic farm network and arable business groups.

Diet, health and education (1%) / International Development (3%)

Our small investment in wider AHDB market development work includes supporting general consumer promotion campaigns such as the Eat Balanced campaign and education. 

Our partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation delivers Food – a fact of life, an online resource and training programme for teachers, and in 2020 459,609 educators downloaded nearly 1.4 million free resources and recipes from the website to increase children’s understanding of where and how their food is grown, reared and produced.

We have scaled back our funding for export development and market access, in line with feedback from growers and stakeholders on it's impact. Currently, we horizon scan and share updates on production and trade.

Market Intelligence & Analysis (8%)

We provide farmers with the latest analysis, prices, consumer trends and market outlook to inform business decisions. Our in-house market specialists and analysts provide regular commentary and forecasts and speak at many conferences and events throughtout the year.

Communications (16%)

Our Communications & Digital teams highlight products and services to levy payers, making them easily accessible and available. This includes face-to-face and online events like the monitor farm meetings, technical publications, website, video, social media, articles and arable focus magazine.

Support (15%)

Cereals and oilseeds make a proportionate contribution to AHDB’s back-office functions supporting delivery, which includes Finance, HR, Facilities, IT costs and our offices across GB.  The cost of running the AHDB cereals and oilseeds board and sector-specific function are also included.

As outlined in the new AHDB strategy, we are committed to be more efficient across all part of the organisation.  The first step will be to streamline AHDB to deliver savings in staff and support costs.