A word from the Dairy council chair

The role of AHDB in having farmers’ backs is more crucial than ever. Around 8,000 farmers, like me, pay the dairy levy to ensure AHDB tackles the challenges that cannot, and will not, be addressed by commercial organisations, individual farmers, or governments.

Dairy farming is not without its challenges. We are currently facing rising input costs, labour shortages, and uncertainty about the impact of food price inflation on demand for our products. We are also dealing with evolving consumer trends, navigating through new trading arrangements, and even dealing with some groups who want dairy farming to stop altogether.

However, British dairy farms have many advantages. Our high animal health and welfare enables our cows to produce nutritious milk, rich in protein, calcium and essential vitamins. This milk is among the most sustainable in the world, with dairy farmers and processors on a journey towards net-zero carbon emissions. Each month, 99% of British households purchase a real dairy product.

Using dairy levy funding, AHDB can promote the benefits of British dairy products while at the same time working to ensure we have hard data and evidence to back up our claims.

As a result of the Shape the Future vote, we now know what’s most important to you. You told us that protecting the reputation of dairy, educating consumers and advertising campaigns are your priorities.

We worked through your feedback and comments. At the same time, we considered the available budget plus the immediate and likely future opportunities and challenges for the sector. This resulted in the three key themes of work below, which are detailed on the main page of this plan:

• Promoting our reputation
• Data and evidence to underpin our reputation
• Practical support for farmers

The plan sets out what work we have directed AHDB to do over the coming five years. The Dairy Sector Council and I are keen to hear your views, and our contact details are at the end of the main sector plan page.

Lyndon Edwards
Dairy Sector Council Chair

Dairy levy

Like many organisations, AHDB faces financial constraints, meaning that the sector council has had to make some hard choices on where we put your levy funds. While AHDB Dairy has been successful in securing funds from third parties to add to levy funds over the last few years, inflation and changes in AHDB’s VAT status (meaning that we can no longer reclaim it) have all combined to reduce the total available to spend on services for you by around £1m per annum from 2023–24.

The levy empowers all levy payers to act together to tackle challenges and opportunities that cannot, or will not, be addressed by individuals or commercial organisations alone. The current dairy levy rate is 0.06 pence per litre and has been at this level since before AHDB was created in 2008. The sector council will seek your views over the coming months on where the levy rate should head in the longer term.