LONDON: AHDB Dairy is focusing its attention on increasing export markets for British dairy produce. British Dairying asks Jean-Pierre Garnier, AHDB head of exports, what the campaign involves and what are its aspirations. There are two main reasons. Firstly, levy payers have expressed the view that the work of AHDB should not only aim to reduce costs of production but also to increase farm gate prices by targeted promotion on the home and export markets. And secondly, there has been a dearth of promotion of British dairy products for some time, which has hampered exports, whilst our competitors have invested constantly over the years to raise their image on world markets.
Budgets for 2017-20 have yet to set and agreed by the board of AHDB Dairy. Domestic promotion is generally more costly as it involves communication to the end consumer. Export promotion, in contrast, entails mainly trade development and the changing of perceptions in the longer term. However, I must stress that exports require critical mass to be effective. The sums in question are indeed tiny when compared to the budgets of dairy companies spent on domestic marketing. However, as I have already said, expenditure in terms of trade development is more cost-effective than consumer marketing. In addition, the type of promotion is very different. Consumer marketing mainly consists of short-term campaigns whilst export promotion, to be effective, must take place consistently with medium- and long-term objectives.
