The California Walnut Board, which administers the Federal Marketing Order, has recommended proposed amendments to the Order.
The Board’s proposed amendments would modify quality control provisions to remove inspection and certification requirements, create a new mechanism for determining and collecting handler assessments, add authority to charge interest for late payments, and remove volume control authority.
As proposed, inspection and certification of outbound walnuts would no longer be required, and handler assessments would be calculated based on a proposed assessment rate recommended by the Board and applied to handlers’ inbound walnuts instead of outbound walnuts.
As part of the process, the USDA held a public hearing on April 19 and 20, 2022, presided over by an administrative law judge, to hear testimony from several industry members who provided statements regarding the proposed changes to the Order and how those changes would benefit the industry.
Now that the hearing is complete, the USDA will consider the information presented, then publish its Recommended Decision in the Federal Register for public review and comment. Once the comment period is over, a referendum will be scheduled, which will give growers an opportunity to vote on the proposed amendments to the Order. The vote will be managed by USDA and is anticipated to be held in the latter part of the year.
