Gran Bretaña: UK potato industry faces increasingly long list of pressures

The inaugural Chair Mark Taylor explained that for the organization to be able to represent the industry with authority, the number of members needed to be able to demonstrate that the group had a mandate for representation.

Taylor: “GBP has the opportunity to raise political awareness in a way no other existing body can do today. We must make the voice of the potato sector heard. We are not just facing a ‘single issue’ but an increasingly long list of pressures and impacts that potentially will change UK potato production forever. We need to act as a collective group now.”

He added: “There is a need for a voice within the potato industry to represent all areas. GB Potatoes aims to become that voice and to act as a hub to facilitate communication, provide a platform for members to work in partnership and to defend the reputation of the industry. To do this, we need growers and other industry partners to sign up now. Waiting to see how it goes will not work, as without the membership it cannot exist. It is a chicken and egg situation where in order to achieve our aims we need to have sufficient membership; without that membership we cannot achieve anything.”