Nationwide Produce’s managing director Tim O’Malley has called for a debate over the future direction of the Potato Council, arguing there needs to be much more of a focus on R&D.

Speaking at last week’s FPJ Conference in Cambridge, O’Malley said there hadn’t been a vote on the levy for nine years and it was time to re-evaluate what growers were getting for their investment. He compared the situation to the HDC – which focuses almost entire on R&D – an organisation O’Malley said had extremely high satisfaction figures from levy payers.

“I’m not in favour of the Potato Council being disbanded and the levy stopped,” O’Malley stressed. “But the main activity of R&D must be maintained. I believe the Potato Council is trying to be all things to all men and it’s not succeeding.”

O’Malley, who pointed out there are a proliferation of trade associations in the potato sector, urged like-minded growers to contact him to discuss forcing a vote to discuss the Potato Council’s future. He also proposed an alternative solution of rolling the Potato Council into the HDC and including potatoes in the levy.

Potato Council director Rob Clayton, speaking to FPJ after the event, said O’Malley’s comments come ahead of the launch of its Direction Through Dialogue programme next month, which will explore all aspects of the PC’s performance with levy payers.

Last week he took part in the Westminster Potato Summit, he pointed out, which was evidence the Potato Council was keen to engage in debate. “The challenge we face is that for every levy payer who wants to see expenditure rise in favour of R&D, I can find another who wants to see more of a marketing focus,” Clayton said.

“It’s not a lonely process for us and our expert industry committees focus on R&D, knowledge transfer, marketing strategy, seed and export and market intelligence, and assist us in prioritising activity that makes a genuine difference without replicating things that commercial businesses can do on their own.”

He added levy-payer feedback is crucial to decision making.

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