Pecan growers and other industry stakeholders, including handlers and shellers, will have a chance in July to offer testimony regarding the proposed federal marketing order for pecans that the American Pecan Board is working to implement. The USDA has announced dates and locations for a series of public hearings to be held in each of the three U.S. pecan-growing regions - Eastern (Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North and South Carolina), Central (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas) and Western (New Mexico, Arizona and California).
The Eastern Region hearings will be held July 27-29 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Tifton at 201 Boo Drive. A fourth day of testimony may be held July 30 if enough stakeholders express an interest in testifying. The hearings will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
Witnesses are expected to testify regarding the costs, benefits and other potential impacts of the proposed marketing order. Individuals who wish to testify will register on the sign-up sheet on the day of their arrival and should be prepared to speak when the administrative law judge facilitating the hearing calls them. The proposed draft of the marketing order is available for review at www.pecanboard.com.
"I believe that a federal marketing order is needed for the pecan industry to have sustained profitability in the long-term," Garrett Ganas, chairman of the Georgia Farm Bureau Pecan Committee, said. "I'd encourage people who are interested in or concerned about the marketing order to attend one of the three days of hearings the USDA will hold in Tifton."
Hearings will be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico, July 20-21 for the Western Region and on July 23-24 in Dallas, Texas, for the Central Region.
According to the APB proposal, qualified growers would be defined as those producing a minimum of 50,000 pounds of inshell pecans during a representative period (average of four years) or owning a minimum of 30 pecan acres as recognized by the Farm Service Agency.
While qualified growers will be the only segment of the industry to cast votes to determine if they want to implement a marketing order, both qualified growers and shellers would serve on the council that would oversee the order.
If the referendum passes, qualified growers and shellers from each of the three growing regions would nominate their respective peers as potential council members. Small growers and shellers as well as large growers and shellers would be represented on the council. Each region will be represented by three growers and two shellers. After receiving the industry nominations, the Secretary of Agriculture would appoint the council members. The first council would be seated in 2017, and then that council would propose assessment rates.
Click here to see more...