10/15/07 Assessment Rate Increase

Assessment Rate Increase. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The Washington State Apple Commission is about to ask their producers to approve a 1-cent per box increase to the current assessment rate of 3.5 cents. Dave Carlson, President of the Washington State Apple Commission says that inflation is eating up their expenses. CARLSON: And rather than arbitrarily just attempting to increase the assessment the board came up with the idea of adding a cap level so that they could flexibly assess somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 cents depending on their budget needs for that particular year. According to Carlson the assessment funds a number of programs that are extremely important to the producers. CARLSON: We basically support with funding the Northwest Hort Council which works for the tree fruit industry: Idaho, Washington and Oregon on market access and phytosanitary issues. We also fund a considerable portion of the budget for US Apple which works on issues at the federal Congress level and then we do the export program we run in 37 different countries over seas. The commission is holding two meetings to get input from producers on the increase. CARLSON: We're going to hold hearings and give the growers opportunities to testify on the 23rd and the 24th. The 23rd is in Yakima and the 24th is in Wenatchee. The assessment could be reviewed each growing season and would adjust back to the 3.5 cent level each year. More on that tomorrow. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.