A collaboration between the Horticultural Trades Association and the British Ornamentals Association will enable growers in the environmental horticulture sector to benefit from the release of more than £334,000 in the form of grants over the next three years.

The HTA and BOA are working together to administer the AHDB Funds Scheme for ornamentals, which uses the remaining balances of horticulture levy payments made by growers to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). It was created after nearly 18 months of negotiation between AHDB, the British Growers Association, and sectoral trade and crop associations.

For ornamentals, the HTA and BOA will operate a bidding process, with grants available to support projects that benefit UK growers collectively. Grants can be awarded for a range of purposes, including research, development, grower events, and market development initiatives. Grants towards projects will be awarded based on feedback from growers and on the extent to which they are likely to deliver collective benefit to UK ornamentals growers.

David Denny, Director of Research & Knowledge Transfer at the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), said: “As UK growers face one of the most difficult business environments in decades, this scheme provides a welcome opportunity to support work to support growth in UK production. It builds on HTA’s programme to unlock funding and R&D capability for the industry, such as the projects now underway with the RHS and Harper Adams University on wireless sensors for irrigation and vine weevil control.  We look forward to working with BOA and our grower community to progress projects that will deliver collective benefit for the sector.”

Robin Squance, Chair of the British Ornamentals Association Technical Committee, said: “Finally, some positive news about the AHDB Horticulture residual funds. Since the statutory levy ended, a significant pot of money has been sitting in limbo. The BOA and the HTA have been working tirelessly to unlock this cash. I’m pleased that we can now introduce the new funding model, which will allow nurseries to access these legacy AHDB funds. We invite growers to submit their requests that we know will benefit UK environmental horticulture production.”

The criteria

Funds allocated through the scheme must be used for work that provides a collective benefit to UK production rather than a benefit to one grower, organisation or a ‘closed group’ of bidders. 

Projects and activities that can be funded through the scheme must collectively benefit growers in the ornamentals sector and be for any of the following:

• Research
• Innovation
• Development
• Dissemination (including knowledge transfer)
• Grower or stakeholder events
• Communications
• Market development (domestic or export)

To find out more about the AHDB funds scheme, visit: hta.org.uk/ahdbscheme or britishornamentals.org/news/ahdb-legacy-funds-access