Poll closing

Again I invite participation in this week's poll question, which will expire tomorrow. Hundreds have visited the site this week but only a handful have voted in this poll. The injustice of it all....

In my argument the other day about the need for a national checkoff assessment for fresh produce, I didn't raise the issue of how that goal of a generic fresh produce promotion campaign funded by mandatory assessments might conflict/compete with commodity-focused promotion orders such as watermelon, potatoes and mangoes, to a name a few.

In this thread at the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group, Big Apple publishes the notice from the USDA that approves an assessment increase for the National Watermelon Promotion Board.

From the final rule's summary:

This rule amends the Watermelon Research and Promotion Plan (Plan) to increase the assessment rate on producers, handlers, and importers of watermelons from four cents to six cents per hundredweight. Domestic producers and handlers will pay three cents per hundredweight each and importers will pay six cents per hundredweight. The increase is provided for under the Plan which is authorized by the Watermelon Research and Promotion Act (Act). The National Watermelon Promotion Board (Board), which administers the Plan, recommended this action to sustain and expand their promotional, research, and communications programs.

TK: The increased assessment for the watermelon board merely adjusts for inflation - after all, the last time assessments were changed was more than 10 years ago. Still, of 40 comments received, 13 comments opposed the assessment hike. That's a tough crowd, and it reflects how difficult it would be to create a whole new mandatory assessment program for fresh produce promotion. Even so, no one told George Washington that crossing that Delaware River in December would be easy. Like the General, we have to look at the upside.