British Cereal Exports’ (BCE) chairman George Forbes is to step down from his position this week.

Forbes, who has chaired the BCE committee for the last six years, part of the UK’s levy board for cereals and oilseeds, the HGCA, helped to introduce the ukp and uks classificationsused for bread flour and for biscuit-making into the export industry, which previously categorised wheat by varieties only.

He has also been instrumental in accessing the Egyptian market, which is the biggest global wheat importer, with 10 million tonnes expected to be imported during the 2012/13 season.

Forbes said: “There will always be things that you look back on, but I just feel so privileged and delighted to have been part of BCE. Perhaps one of the biggest things I’ve come to value is just how much growers and traders need each other.

“It’s the farmers who can tell traders which varieties are working, how the yields are doing and it’s the traders who can advise farmers on particular requirements for the export market – and over the past 12 years I have even greater admiration for them both.”