USDA announces Florida Citrus Referendum results

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is announcing that citrus growers in Florida have passed a referendum to amend their federal marketing order program.

Producers of Florida oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, and tangelos for the fresh market voted in the referendum from Sep. 14, 2015 through Oct. 5, 2015. The growers voted overwhelmingly in favor of all nine amendments recommended by the Citrus Administrative Committee (committee), with 96 percent of the votes approving the proposed changes.

The amendments authorize the committee to:

Regulate new varieties and hybrids of citrus fruit;
Regulate intrastate shipments of citrus fruit;
Revise the process for redistricting the production area;
Change the term of office and tenure requirements for committee members;
Mail balloting procedures for committee membership nominations;
Increase the capacity of financial reserve funds;
Authorize pack and container requirements for domestic shipments and authorize different regulations for different markets;
Eliminate the use of separate acceptance statements during the nomination process; and
Require handlers to register with the committee.

Notice of the referendum was published in the Federal Register on July 21, 2015, and ballot materials were mailed to all known producers of record on Sept. 11, 2015. A final rule implementing the amendments will be published in a future issue of the Federal Register.

Please visit www.ams.usda.gov for more information.