Norfolk & Suffolk Agri-Food Industry Council Meeting
Tuesday 10th December, 09:30-11:30
Agriculture House, Willie Snaith Rd, Newmarket CB8 7SN
Minutes
Present
Doug Field (Chair) New Anglia LEP
Madeleine Coupe New Anglia LEP
Suffolk Agricultural
Philip Ainsworth
Emma Taylor
New Anglia LEP
Association
Rachel Carrington NFU
Sam Fairs
Hillfairs Farming Ltd
Barry Chevalier
Belinda Clarke
Agri-Tech East
Aspalls Cider
Guild
Cath Crowther
CLA
Clarke Willis
Honingham Thorpe
Collison &
Greg Smith
RNAA
Martin Collison
Associates
Jane Townsend
Easton Otley College
Sarah Lucas
Brown & Co
Suffolk County
Viv Gillespie
Suffolk New College
Jasmine Joolia
Council
Corrienne
Norfolk County
City College Norwich
Kate De Vries
Peasgood
Council
Ben Turner
Ben Burgess & Co Ltd
Alex Dinsdale
Agri-Tech East
Apologies
Jonathan Clarke
JIC
David Hill
R W Hill (Farms) Ltd
Cath Crowther
CLA
Robert Gooch
The Wildmeat Co
Jane Townsend
Easton Otley College
Andrew Fearne
UEA
Andrew Francis
Elveden Estate
Nigel Davies
Muntons
Karen Barclay
Anglian Water
Guests
Cllr Sam Chapman-Allen (observer) Leader, Breckland District Council
1.
Welcome from the Chair
ACTIONS
Doug Field welcomed everyone and thanked Rachel Carrington for hosting the meeting.
Apologies were received from those listed above.
DF introduced Alex Dinsdale from Agri-Tech East, who will be providing secretariat services to
the Council.
2.
Minutes of the Last Meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.
Matters Arising:
It was requested that there be a minimum of two education representatives on the
council
Confirmation that meetings are to be held at a minimum of twice a year
Council terms of reference (ToR)
o Amendment reflecting the fact that Agri-Tech East (Agri-TechE) are to provide
the secretariat service to the Council was accepted
o ToR needs to be amended to reflect the focus on growth
o ToR needs to include ‘labour supply’ as a strategic objective alongside (or part
of) skills development
Updated, approved Council Terms of Reference are attached
3.
Brainstorming Workshop
Secretariat to
Belinda Clarke (BC) outlined the context to this:
collate and
circulate
The purpose of this exercise was to provide the starting point for the development of a ‘smart
contribution.
specialisation’ regional narrative for the sector in the NALEP area. In order to be able to
respond to tenders & bid for funding, as well as to effectively showcase our region’s strengths,
we need to develop a clear narrative. Under a ‘smart specialisation’ approach this narrative
Secretariat &
should not simply be a list of our region’s assets and high-level statistics, but rather a reflection
New Anglia
of the breadth of the diversity & dynamism within our agri-food sector.
LEP to use as
part of the
This exercise was aimed at harnessing the knowledge, network and experience of the Council
foundation
members to identify key, innovative, particularly note-worthy businesses and organisations at
for
different places along the agri-food value chain from discovery research to retail in the New
developing
Anglia LEP area.
regional
narrative
Following the exercise Belinda thanked the Council for their participation and their energy. The
collated list would be shared with Council members who would be engaged in the next steps of
the initiative.
The full list of contributions from this session are attached as Appendix 1
4. Local Industrial Strategy: Regional Narrative
ET and
Emma Taylor (ET) explained the Council's aspiration to develop a regional narrative (to
secretariat to
ultimately include Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and Lincolnshire as well). The purpose of
develop
this regional narrative is to help drive forward the local industrial strategy, and to capture the
framework for
huge amount of knowledge and experience within the Council to help to do this. Sustainable
regional
food production is at the heart of the local industrial strategy objectives, and the regional
narrative
narrative will reflect the LEP’s priorities for the agri-food sector: investment, collaboration &
development. An important driver for this is the desire to avoid intra-regional competition, and
to strengthen efforts to work together regionally to help highlight and promote our strengths.
Key points made:
-
Relevant and accurate local imagery should be used for marketing and promotional
material.
-
The narrative must reflect our desire to make the area attractive to business and easy
and comfortable for them to operate in.
-
The narrative must recognise the differences between small businesses based in the
region and those businesses, linked to larger national and international businesses,
who potentially will have more flexibility in terms of their locations.
-
We need to reflect the concepts of growth and added value within our narrative,
together with a means of capturing this.
-
We need to work with both the food and the agri-tech teams at the Department for
International Trade. Experience shows that those regions which engage more with the
department tend to benefit from this relationship.
-
Likewise, following the election, it will be important to engage with MPs and for them to
recognise & support our efforts
5. Delivery Plan
Secretariat to
ET explained to the Council about the importance of maintaining activity between meetings to
convene
avoid losing energy and momentum. One of those tasks would be to develop a vision for the
meeting to
Council which will help to guide the development of the delivery plan and the activities of the
develop the
Council in general.
Council
vision
The chair nominated Jon Clarke from the John Innes Centre to lead the subgroup to help put
together this vision. Also volunteering at the meeting were Ben Turner, Clarke Willis, Greg
Smith, and subsequently, following the meeting, Sarah Lucas.
This group will meet in the New Year.
6. Funding Update
Please see Appendix 2 for the full detail of the funding update provided by ET & Maddie Coupe
(MC)
Rachel Carrington (RC) gave an update on some of the funding available from Defra. The
department has been undertaking further work on the productivity schemes, but we're still
waiting for detail on this. Everything is currently on hold until after the election.
7. AOB
Corienne Peasgood asked if the attached document Appendix 3 could be circulated for the
council's consideration. Please provide comments direct to Corienne Peasgood
[email protected]
Ben Turner gave a brief update on the current, very difficult situation facing UK farm
businesses, following the very wet autumn. It was agreed that future meetings would begin with
brief updates (typically no longer than 10 minutes), from those members of the council who
wished to give one, on current issues facing farming and food processing businesses in the
LEP area.
Clarke Willis alerted members to the fact that the Norfolk Skills and Careers Festival is taking
place on 4 and 5 March 2020. This will feature a big food and farming presence, especially
necessary considering the recruitment needs of the sector and its poor profile with many young
people. If anyone is interested in attending or would like to know more, please contact Clarke
Willis.
It was agreed that at the next meeting the Council would confirm conflict of interest procedures
and governance arrangements, in line with other New Anglia LEP industry councils.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday April 21 at 9.30am - 11.30am at Centrum,
Norwich Research Park
Future meetings will be held on 15 September and 15 December