About
the HDC
Our aim is "To serve British growers by being a
top-class, efficient and progressive facilitator of near-market
horticultural research and development and the associated
technology transfer. In addition the Company will sponsor
market research or promotion of specific products where
there is shown to be a collective need for such activity.
The Company should provide clear value for money and be
respected as making a major contribution to the profitability
of the British horticultural industry."
The Horticultural Development Company (HDC) is a statutory
body who administer the collection of an 'industry levy'
to fund essential near-market research and development
for the benefit of UK horticulture.
The collected levy for most crops is 0.5% of annual turnover,
the exception being for the
mushroom industry. In 2006/7 the total levy collected was £4.9
million. For more details see the Levy pages.
With responsibility for over 300 crops in the horticultural
industry, the HDC looks after the different crop interests
through seven sector Panels:
Industry lead research
To ensure that this near-market R&D is correctly
tuned to meet the needs of industry, growers and farmers
play a vital role in setting research strategies in each
of the crop sectors and in the decision making process
for individual research projects.
A source of technical information
Of course, for industry to truly benefit from this research
it is essential that the results are communicated in an
effective and timely manner. The HDC achieves this through
the organisation of industry events to update its Members
on any advances in research and development. In addition,
the HDC publishes a range of factsheets, training DVDs,
wall charts, crop walkers guides, software programmes as
well as HDC News, HDC's monthly journal.
More information on the HDC can be found in our Corporate
Plan.
Annual Reports
Our Annual reports are available for you to download in pdf format, simply click the links below.
|
