Potato Council to increase levy 3%

The Potato Council has confirmed that it is increasing its levy for 2011/2012 by 3%.
It first announced its plans to increase the levy last year when it revealed plans to increase it by 3% for three consecutive years.

Potato Council director Rob Clayton said: "Feedback had suggested that having regular small annual levy increases was the preferable approach.

"The 3% increase proposed for 2011-12 would result in a grower levy of £41.38/ha and a purchaser levy of 18.04p/tonne. For the majority of levy payers that are growers, this proposed increase amounts to 2.7p/tonne based on an average yield."

He added that if inflationary increases had been applied to the levy over the eight years up to 2010-11, it would have been 27% higher in 2010 than the levy increase proposed.

A detailed plan for levy-payers with a comprehensive explanation of proposals for the next three years has been published on the Potato Council website.