It has been announced that Neil Bragg from Bulrush Horticulture is the new chairman of the Growing Media Association (GMA) with Ben Malin from Godwins taking on the role of vice-chairman. Mr Bragg takes over from outgoing chair Steve Harper from Bord Na Mona, who has held the position for the last four years.

Outgoing chair Steve Harper commented: “It’s been an honour serving as chair of the GMA representing and supporting our green industry. Neil is a fantastic successor to the role with his depth and breadth of knowledge, I offer him and the GMA any support they need as we continue to develop our voice and influence across the industry and at government level. This is an important year for our industry with the impending 2020 peat bans and I will now be focusing on leading the Responsible Sourcing Scheme for Growing Media to become an auditable scheme over the next 12 months."

New chair Neil Bragg added: " Firstly, I would like to thank Steve for being so involved as the Chair during the last 4 years and moving along the work on the Responsible Sourcing Scheme.  As an industry horticulture faces many challenges and it is essential that the GMA, as the industry growing media body, projects the positive moves being made to address the key issues faced by the industry and give whatever support it can to end users in addressing these issues."

The GMA, brings together growing media manufacturers and suppliers from UK and Ireland, and is a forum for looking at the key topics impacting the industry from performance standards and technical updates to monitoring usage and the development of the responsible sourcing scheme.