[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 116 (Thursday, June 17, 2010)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 34345-34347]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-14569]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Agricultural Marketing Service

7 CFR Part 956

[Doc. No. AMS-FV-10-0020; FV10-956-1 FR]


Sweet Onions Grown in the Walla Walla Valley of Southeast 
Washington and Northeast Oregon; Changes to Reporting and Assessment 
Due Dates

AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: This rule changes the reporting and assessment date 
requirements prescribed under the marketing order regulating the 
handling of sweet onions grown in the Walla Walla Valley of southeast 
Washington and northeast Oregon. The marketing order is administered 
locally by the Walla Walla Sweet Onion Marketing Committee (hereinafter 
referred to as the ``Committee''). This rule revises the submission due 
date for certain handler reports and assessment payments from September 
1 to September 30. This change allows handlers additional time to 
compile requisite information and submit it to the Committee. It is 
expected that this action will improve handler compliance with the 
administrative requirements of the marketing order.

DATES: Effective Date: July 19, 2010.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Barry Broadbent, Marketing Specialist, 
or Gary Olson, Regional Manager, Northwest Marketing Field Office, 
Marketing Order Administration Branch, Fruit and Vegetable Programs, 
AMS, USDA; Telephone: (503) 326-2724, Fax: (503) 326-7440, or E-mail: 
[email protected] or [email protected].
    Small businesses may request information on complying with this 
regulation by contacting Antoinette Carter, Marketing Order 
Administration Branch, Fruit and Vegetable Programs, AMS, USDA, 1400 
Independence Avenue, SW., STOP 0237, Washington, DC 20250-0237; 
Telephone: (202) 720-2491, Fax: (202) 720-8938, or E-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This final rule is issued under Marketing 
Agreement and Order No. 956, both as amended (7 CFR part 956), 
regulating the handling of sweet onions in the Walla Walla Valley of 
southeast Washington and northeast Oregon, hereinafter referred to as 
the ``order.'' The order is effective under the Agricultural Marketing 
Agreement Act of 1937, as amended (7 U.S.C. 601-674), hereinafter 
referred to as the ``Act.''
    The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is issuing this rule in 
conformance with Executive Order 12866.
    This final rule has been reviewed under Executive Order 12988, 
Civil Justice Reform. This rule is not intended to have retroactive 
effect.
    The Act provides that administrative proceedings must be exhausted 
before parties may file suit in court. Under section 608c(15)(A) of the 
Act, any handler subject to an order may file with USDA a petition 
stating that the order, any provision of the order, or any obligation 
imposed in connection with the order is not in accordance with law and 
request a modification of the order or to be exempted therefrom. A 
handler is afforded the opportunity for a hearing on the petition. 
After the hearing, USDA would rule on the petition. The Act provides 
that the district court of the United States in any district in which 
the handler is an inhabitant, or has his or her principal place of 
business, has jurisdiction to review USDA's ruling on the petition, 
provided an action is filed not later than 20 days after the date of 
the entry of the ruling.
    This final rule revises the due date prescribed in the order's 
administrative rules for certain reports and assessment payments. 
Specifically, the submission due date for handler shipment statements 
and assessment payments for Walla Walla sweet onions shipped prior to 
September 1 (hereinafter referred to as ``regular season'') is changed 
from September 1 to September 30. The due date change will allow 
handlers the needed time to compile information, file reports, and pay 
assessments. It is expected that this action will improve handler 
compliance with the order's reporting and assessment requirements. The 
rule was unanimously recommended by the Committee at its February 2, 
2010, meeting.
    Section 956.80 of the order provides that, upon request of the 
Committee, with the approval of the Secretary, each handler shall 
furnish to the Committee, in such manner and at such time as it may 
prescribe, such reports and other information as may be necessary for 
the Committee to perform its duties. In addition, Sec.  956.42(a) 
provides that each person who first handles Walla Walla sweet onions 
shall pay assessments to the Committee upon demand.
    Section 956.180(b) of the order's administrative rules prescribes 
that each handler shall furnish to the Committee a Handler's Statement 
of Walla Walla Sweet Onion Shipments. Prior to this final rule, for 
Walla Walla sweet onions handled prior to September 1, such report was 
required to be furnished to the Committee by September 1. In addition, 
Sec.  956.142 of the order provided that, for Walla Walla Sweet Onions 
handled prior to September 1, annual assessment payments were also due 
September 1.
    At its meeting on February 2, 2010, the Committee recommended that 
the order's reporting and assessment due date for regular season 
shipments be changed from September 1 to September 30 to allow handlers 
additional time to

[[Page 34346]]

fulfill their reporting and assessment requirements. At the time the 
order was promulgated in 1995, the Walla Walla sweet onion shipping 
season typically concluded at the end of July or early in August. As 
such, the Committee established a September 1 deadline for submitting 
reports and paying assessments for Walla Walla sweet onions handled 
during the regular season, which gave handlers most of the month of 
August to accumulate information and prepare their reports and 
assessment payments.
    Recently, however, handlers have indicated to the Committee that 
advancements in Walla Walla sweet onion production and storage 
techniques have extended the regular season for the shipment of such 
onions until the end of August. As a result, it has become more 
difficult for handlers to gather the information required in time to 
meet the September 1 deadline for reporting shipments and paying 
assessments. Changing the due date for submission of the handler's 
shipment statement and assessment payment for regular season shipments 
from September 1 to September 30 allows handlers the needed time to 
complete the requirements and submit them to the Committee.

Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

    Pursuant to requirements set forth in the Regulatory Flexibility 
Act (RFA) (5 U.S.C. 601-612), the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) 
has considered the economic impact of this action on small entities. 
Accordingly, AMS has prepared this final regulatory flexibility 
analysis.
    The purpose of the RFA is to fit regulatory actions to the scale of 
business subject to such actions in order that small businesses will 
not be unduly or disproportionately burdened. Marketing orders issued 
pursuant to the Act, and rules issued thereunder, are unique in that 
they are brought about through group action of essentially small 
entities acting on their own behalf.
    There are approximately 28 handlers of Walla Walla sweet onions who 
are subject to regulation under the marketing order and approximately 
37 Walla Walla sweet onion producers in the regulated area. Small 
agricultural service firms are defined by the Small Business 
Administration (SBA) (13 CFR 121.201) as those having annual receipts 
of less than $7,000,000, and small agricultural producers are defined 
as those having annual receipts of less than $750,000.
    Based on information from the Committee for the 2009 shipping 
season, handlers shipped 621,218 50-pound equivalents of Walla Walla 
sweet onions. At an average price of $11.50 per 50-pound equivalent, 
total handler revenue was approximately $7,144,000 and average revenue 
per handler was approximately $255,100. Also based on information from 
the Committee, producers harvested an average of 24 acres of Walla 
Walla sweet onions, with an average production of 699 50-pound 
equivalents per acre. With an average farm gate value of $8.75 per 50-
pound equivalent, Walla Walla sweet onion producers averaged 
approximately $146,800 in gross receipts for the year. Based on this 
information, the majority of handlers and producers of Walla Walla 
sweet onions may be classified as small entities under SBA's standards.
    This final rule revises the due date contained in Sec. Sec.  
956.180 and 956.142 of the order for the submission of regular season 
handler reports and assessment payments for Walla Walla sweet onions 
handled from June 1 through August 31. The deadline for submitting 
reports and assessment payments for such regular season onion shipments 
is revised from September 1 to September 30. This change does not 
affect the reporting and assessment payment due dates for late season 
Walla Walla sweet onions shipped during the September 1 through May 31 
period, which continues to be 30 days after the end of the month in 
which the onions were handled. The due date change allows handlers the 
needed time to compile information, file reports and pay assessments. 
Authority for this action is provided in Sec. Sec.  956.42(f) and 
956.80.
    At its February 2, 2010, meeting, the Committee discussed whether 
the due date for certain reports and assessment payments needed to be 
changed to allow more time for handlers to comply with the order's 
requirements. Handlers stated at the meeting that advancements in both 
the production and storage of Walla Walla sweet onions had extended the 
marketability of their product well into August, whereas, 
traditionally, their primary marketing season ended around the end of 
July. As such, the handlers explained that there is now less time 
between the end of their shipping period and the reporting deadline to 
compile information, complete reports and pay their assessments. The 
Committee staff indicated that compliance with the order's reporting 
and assessment requirements would likely improve if handlers were given 
additional time to fulfill them.
    At the meeting, the Committee discussed alternatives to this 
change, including extending the due dates even further; requiring 
submission of reports and assessments monthly instead of at the end of 
the regular season; changing the due dates, but adding a late penalty; 
and not making any changes. However, the Committee believed that 
changing the due date for reports and assessment payments on regular 
season onion shipments from September 1 to September 30 adequately 
addressed the concerns of the handlers while maintaining sufficient 
consequences for noncompliance and reasonable timelines for the 
administration of the order.
    This final rule is not expected to have any economic impact on 
handlers or producers of any size. The benefits of this rule are not 
expected to be disproportionately greater or less for small handlers or 
producers than for larger entities.
    Information collected under this order is currently approved under 
OMB No. 0581-0178. This action will not impose any additional reporting 
or recordkeeping requirements on either small or large Walla Walla 
sweet onion handlers. As stated above, information collected will not 
change with this rule; only the date on which the collection is 
required to be submitted will be revised. As with all Federal marketing 
order programs, reports and forms are periodically reviewed to reduce 
information requirements and duplication by industry and public sector 
agencies.
    As noted in the initial regulatory flexibility analysis, USDA has 
not identified any relevant Federal rules that duplicate, overlap or 
conflict with this final rule.
    AMS is committed to complying with the E-Government Act, to promote 
the use of the Internet and other information technologies to provide 
increased opportunities for citizen access to Government information 
and services, and for other purposes.
    In addition, the Committee's meeting was widely publicized 
throughout the Walla Walla sweet onion industry and all interested 
persons were invited to attend the meeting and participate in Committee 
deliberations on all issues. Like all Committee meetings, the February 
2, 2010, meeting was a public meeting and all entities, both large and 
small, were able to express views on this issue.
    A proposed rule concerning this action was published in the Federal 
Register on April 12, 2010 (75 FR 18428). Copies of the rule were 
mailed or sent via facsimile to all Committee members and Walla Walla 
sweet onion handlers. Finally, the rule was made

[[Page 34347]]

available through the Internet by USDA and the Office of the Federal 
Register. A 30-day comment period ending May 12, 2010, was provided to 
allow interested persons to respond to the proposal. No comments were 
received during the comment period in response to the proposal. 
Accordingly, no changes will be made to the rule as proposed.
    A small business guide on complying with fruit, vegetable, and 
specialty crop marketing agreements and orders may be viewed at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateN&page=MarketingOrdersSmallBusinessGuide. Any questions about the compliance guide should be sent to 
Antoinette Carter at the previously mentioned address in the FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.
    After consideration of all relevant material presented, including 
the information and recommendation submitted by the Committee and other 
available information, it is hereby found that this rule, as 
hereinafter set forth, will tend to effectuate the declared policy of 
the Act.

List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 956

    Marketing agreements, Onions, Reporting and recordkeeping 
requirements.

0
For the reasons set forth in the preamble, 7 CFR part 956 is amended as 
follows:

PART 956--SWEET ONIONS GROWN IN THE WALLA WALLA VALLEY OF SOUTHEAST 
WASHINGTON AND NORTHEAST OREGON

0
1. The authority citation for 7 CFR part 956 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority:  7 U.S.C. 601-674.


0
2. Revise Sec.  956.142 to read as follows:


Sec.  956.142  Interest charges.

    For Walla Walla Sweet Onions handled prior to September 1, the 
Committee shall impose an interest charge on any handler who fails to 
pay his or her annual assessments within thirty (30) days of the due 
date of September 30. For Walla Walla Sweet Onions handled during the 
period September 1 through May 31, the Committee shall impose an 
interest charge on any handler who fails to pay his or her assessments 
within thirty (30) days of the last day of the month in which such 
shipments are made. The interest charge shall be 1\1/2\ percent of the 
unpaid assessment balance. In the event the handler fails to pay the 
delinquent assessment amount within 60 days following the due date, the 
1\1/2\ percent interest charge shall be applied monthly thereafter to 
the unpaid balance, including any accumulated interest. Any amount paid 
by a handler as an assessment, including any charges imposed pursuant 
to this paragraph, shall be credited when the payment is received in 
the Committee office.
0
3. Revise Sec.  956.180(b) introductory text to read as follows:


Sec.  956.180  Reports.

* * * * *
    (b) Each handler shall furnish to the Committee a Handler's 
Statement of Walla Walla Sweet Onion Shipments containing the 
information in paragraphs (a)(1), (a)(2), and (a)(3) of this section, 
except that gift box and roadside stand sales shall be exempt from 
paragraph (a)(2) of this section: Provided, That for Walla Walla Sweet 
Onions handled prior to September 1, such report shall be furnished to 
the Committee by September 30, and that for Walla Walla Sweet Onions 
handled during the period September 1 through May 31, such report shall 
be furnished to the Committee no later than thirty (30) days after the 
end of the month in which such onions were handled:
* * * * *

    Dated: June 11, 2010.
Rayne Pegg,
Administrator, Agricultural Marketing Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-14569 Filed 6-16-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P