BOA North West Group Hybrid Meeting – 18th October 2022

Taking place at 7PM at NFU Skelmersdale as well as virtually for those unable to attend in person. The meeting looks to discuss new EAMU structure and if your business is ready for the new EPR rules and reporting due next year. Register here.

Thanks to everybody who joined us

The meeting started with an update from John Chinn.
John Chinn from Cobrey Farms is part of the working group for the new Horticultural Crop Protection Ltd and he very kindly offered to attend the meeting to update us on the progress of the group and using the surplus funds from AHDB. The request for funds had been supported by the AHDB horticultural board but was turned down by the main board. It was suggested we needed to show that it was supported by the industry.

The BOA sent the following letter

This was followed up by this press release from BGA

  The horticulture sector has spoken and the AHDB has acted to  support the industry and Defra in securing the long-term support for EAMU/EA work for the Horticulture sector.

  Following careful consideration of the implications and to ensure the ongoing essential work in connection with EAMU/EA services the AHDB Board has agreed, in principle, for the transfer of surplus levy funds to the new company Horticulture Crop Protection Ltd (HCP). It is envisaged the funding will bring a degree of certainty and enables important ongoing work  to continue as the new organisation develops its operation.

  Discussions are still taking place between the parties on the exact details of the arrangements, but industry associations have wholly signalled their support of a new voluntary subscription model as proposed by HCP and the move is considered a natural follow-on from the work previously undertaken by the levy board.

  It is anticipated the sum involved is in the region of £1m over a period of time and the transfer of these levy monies is subject to Defra approval.

  During the period of transition from the existing system to the new organisation the team at AHDB are managing the pipeline of work to give the new organisation the greatest chance of success. 

It now looks like the EAMU system will continue, but it needs your support more details to follow.

Joanna from AHDB joined us to explain why we need EAMU’s and how you can help make sure they continue

The new EPR rules and how they may affect your business.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) will see the full cost of collecting household waste shift from the taxpayer to producers, in the hope of delivering a more circular economy for packaging where greater quantities of recyclable waste are reprocessed into valuable, high-quality secondary resources.

• Producers will have an increased financial incentive to use packaging that is widely collected from householders for recycling, as well as to increase recycled content in packaging
• Additional data concerning packaging type and recyclability will need to be collected and reported every 6 months
• Data reporting requirements will become more complex
• Introduction of modulated fees could see producer compliance costs increase if you use hard or costly to recycle packaging
• Reporting will need to be completed and aggregates for sales made in each of the devolved administrations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)

  Under the new rules growers will have to collect data and pay the EPR fees are you ready?
We struggled to find a speaker on the new rules, so Robin summarised the current position and gave the following presentation.