The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service is now taking comments on a rule that will reduce the market order assessments on onion handlers by half.
The rule implements a recommendation from the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee to decrease the assessment rate from 10 cents to 5 cents per hundred weight of onions handled under the marketing order, according to the marketing service.
Assessments upon onion handlers are used by the Onion Committee, consisting of producers and handlers, to fund such things as domestic and export promotions and production research expenses, as well as program expenses, the service said.
Grant Kitamura, general manager of Murakami Produce in Ontario, said the proposed reduction in the assessment will provide individual shippers more opportunities to promote their companies and their own product lines.
“I think it will be more effective,” Kitamura said. While the shippers work together, “we’re competitors, too,” he added.
Under the current assessment, the budgeted expenditures for the 2014-15 program under the marketing order were about $1.173 million, the marketing service said. Under the reduced assessment, the projected expenditures for 2015-16 are $705,473.
The biggest change was in the reduction of expenditures for domestic and export promotions, according to the marketing service. There are approximately 250 onion producers in the production area, and about 31 handlers subject to the marketing order.
The Agricultural Marketing Service will accept comments until Oct. 19. Comments will be considered prior to issuance of a final rule.
