Funding Your Future 2023 - Pork Sector Chair open letter

An open letter to levy payers from Mike Sheldon, AHDB Pork Sector Council chair.

Last year, levy payers representing over half of the pigs farmed and three-quarters of those processed, took part in AHDB’s Shape the Future vote. They told us the most important work AHDB did for them was:

• Marketing
• Exports
• Reputation – which includes AHDB’s education, environment, animal health and welfare, and reputational defence work.

 The Pork Sector Council – almost all are levy payers – reviewed all AHDB’s work to ensure it supports those priorities. Highlights over the past year include:

• Marketing: Boosting the attitude towards British pork for UK consumers of all ages – AHDB’s expertise in consumer behaviour enables our marketing team to create highly targeted marketing campaigns. One example, the Mix Up Midweek TV campaign, reached 27 million adults, while the latest social media campaign was seen 68 million times. Measuring impact on sales is extremely expensive, so we don’t ask AHDB to do it every year. The last independent review in 2020 for the ‘Midweek Meals’ campaign showed it had delivered an increase in sales over 3 years of £37.3m. And at last, post-Brexit changes allow us to champion British pork specifically so AHDB’s work can be even more supportive to the sector
• Exports: Promoting British pork overseas – AHDB works with governments and industry to open, keep open, and optimise export markets. British pork was sold in over 91 countries during 2020–2022. Last year, 370,000 tonnes of British pig meat were sold overseas, generating an extra £624m. The more markets that are open, the better protected we are from losing ground in any one of them, including our home market
• Reputation: Protecting and promoting the reputation of British pork and the industry that supplies it – AHDB uses facts to counter mistruths and address concerns over the impact of pork consumption on human health, animal health and welfare, and the environment. This ‘hidden’ work is not often seen by levy payers. For example, AHDB has publicly challenged the credibility of the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study, published in The Lancet, as well as raised issues regarding impartial reporting of facts relating to the pork sector by the BBC. We also collect data and use it to quell concerns over antibiotic use in the sector

All this work is vital and there is so much more AHDB delivers, such as their collaboration with the British Nutrition Foundation to educate schoolchildren and working with governments and industry to help prevent and limit the impact of disease.  

What the levy does

Trade dynamics and consumers pose challenges to this sector every day.

Your levy delivers critical work that individuals can’t, and commercial organisations are unlikely to do, unlocking value for levy payers that would not otherwise be tapped.

It is the mechanism for levy payers to collectively take control and influence things that matter to them most. Everyone contributes according to the size of their business and everyone benefits.

AHDB can do more

As the stakes rise, we need the levy to do more to regularly remind consumers and governments of the high integrity of British pig meat, to ensure optimum sales and appropriate policy-making.

We need ever more clever and impactful marketing campaigns to continuously inspire consumers to enjoy pork, at home or when out, and to target those who are more likely to question meat eating.

We must pursue export sales to underpin pig prices here.

We must champion British pork through our educational work with younger consumers and schoolchildren to secure the long-term future of the sector. We must push back on mistruths and balance out the debate by showing how nutritionally important pork is and how well the British industry produces it.

We must ensure governments have the facts on the low environmental impact of pork production, and must work to ensure farmers are recognised and rewarded for their environmental credentials and the progress they make.   

To do this, we, the AHDB Pork Sector Council, propose an increase in the levy.

Why?

The British pork sector faces huge challenges and needs to act together to optimise the future. AHDB has changed along with the industry – as the spending power of the levy has reduced, it too has focused its work.

The levy rate is the same today as it was over 20 years ago – £1.05 per pig. AHDB has increased its efficiency, including stopping some work to match available funds. However, without an increase, the next step would be to cut into priority work.

We, the Pork Sector Council, would ask you to support a levy increase of 21p per pig, which will allow AHDB to keep on delivering the vital support this sector needs and to match the growing challenges it faces.

If you would like to share your views on whether you support a levy increase, contact us at info@ahdb.org.uk

We look forward to hearing from you.