Potato council cuts? Impossible, says chair

Rumours circulating at the weekend that various levy boards such as the British Potato Council would come under the UK government's axe were rubbished yesterday.

East Lothian farmer Allan Stevenson said: "If the government intends getting rid of the British Potato Council, as has been reported on the BBC and in some Sunday papers, then they are two years too late."

"The British Potato Council ceased to be in April 2008 and its successor body, the Potato Council, which I chair, is fully funded by producer and merchant levies."

A major re-organisation of all promotional and research bodies in the agricultural and horticultural sectors two years ago saw them pulled together under the umbrella organisation, the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board. The AHDB has annual income of about £48 million with all of this raised by producers and growers.