Our key immediate functions
- DEFEND: stand ready to defend the reputation of the industry when required, in a way that no other existing body can.
- Re-instate reputational and crisis management function
- SPEAK: be the single point of industry contact for government, regulators & the media
- Coordinated and pro-active support for the industry
- Engage on the immediate priority issues affecting the GB Potato Sector
- ENABLE: provide the platform for members to work in partnership on projects of mutual interest.
- Immediate need to support Blight & Aphid monitoring programmes
- Facilitate conversations and ensure effective applications for available funding to support priority industry need.
- KNOW: be aware of cross industry research and development activity, current and historic, to reduce duplication and bring together mutual interest groups.
- COMMUNICATE: provide forums for the whole industry to come together to tackle the current challenges
- Act NOW to represent our Industry!
A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR BRITISH POTATOES
We believe that the potato industry in Great Britain has much to gain from working together when we have common interests. This website is about the future of the British Potato Industry. Anyone who has an interest in that is welcome here.
GB Potatoes working group is a group of nine individuals who have been talking for the last year about how we safeguard the future of our industry. We don’t have “the answer” (and it’s not our place to) but we do have the beginning of a proposal, and we are trying to facilitate the conversation to get things started.
The industry needs a “respected voice” that can speak to Defra, devolved governments, media and assurance bodies in a way that no individual business or trade body can. This proposal creates an umbrella body which can deal with reputational issues or crisis management – a function we will miss if, or rather when, we need it in a hurry.
There’s also a co-ordination role. We’re not proposing a body with the budget to undertake much R&D off its own bat, but we do envisage a co-ordination role. Where groups of businesses, or syndicates, want to get together to fund research, which would remain their own intellectual property, GB Potatoes could facilitate this and reduce the risk of duplication. We see a GB Potatoes body as providing a platform to enable collaboration between businesses in the supply chain as and when it suits their needs.
