The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that raisin growers in California have voted to amend their federal marketing order. In a referendum conducted Dec. 4-15, 2017, the raisin growers approved amendments to:
- Authorize production research;
- Establish new nomination procedures for independent grower member and alternate member seats;
- Add authority to regulate quality;
- Add authority to establish different regulations for different market destinations; and
- Add the requirement for decisions to continue the marketing order be made through referenda.
In addition, the growers approved a USDA-proposed amendment to remove volume regulation and reserve pool authority from the order. A second USDA-proposed amendment to add term limits for Raisin Administrative Committee members did not pass.
The passing amendments were favored by more than 90 percent of the growers voting in the referendum, representing more than 90 percent of the total volume of raisins produced by those voting. For the amendments to pass, they had to be favored either by at least two-thirds of the growers voting in the referendum or two-thirds of the volume represented in the referendum.
To be eligible to vote, a grower must have produced raisins in the designated area between Aug. 1, 2016, through July 31, 2017.
The Federal Register published a notice of the referendum Sept. 29, 2017. A final rule implementing the amendments will be published in a future edition of the Federal Register.
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