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ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL 2773
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AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE
Passed Legislature - 2002 Regular Session
State of Washington 57th Legislature 2002
Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/28/2002. Referred to
Committee on Agriculture & Ecology.
Revising standards for
apple grades and requiring reports on the consignment sales of apples under the
new standards.
AN ACT Relating to
sales of fruit; adding a new section to chapter 42.17 RCW; creating new
sections; and providing an expiration date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec.
1. To provide uniformity in
the marketplace and to protect consignors of apples, the existing state
standards for grades and packs of apples shall be evaluated. Revision of the
standards for grades and packs of apples that will clarify the standards in
such a way that they will be applied consistently among warehouses and
commission merchants shall be evaluated. The evaluation must consider the
appropriate level of uniformity that will ensure that the apples of a
particular variety, grade, and pack sold from one warehouse will be equivalent
to the apples of the same variety, grade, and pack sold from other warehouses.
For this purpose, the
director shall convene an apple grades and packs committee that is widely
recognized within the horticultural industry as representing the interests of
the industry to recommend by consensus revisions to the standards that it
believes will provide the desired level of uniformity that best serves the
interest of apple producers, packers, and consumers.
If the industry
committee recommends such revisions by consensus by December 15, 2003, the
director shall give great weight to the recommendations in proposing the
adoption of rules that reflect the consensus recommendations.
If the apple grades and
packs committee does not make recommendations by consensus by December 15,
2003, the committee shall report its findings and conclusions to the department
of agriculture, and to appropriate legislative committees that have
jurisdiction over agricultural issues at meetings scheduled during the next
ensuing regular session of the legislature. The appropriate legislative
committees may monitor the activities of the apple grades and packs committee
and may schedule interim committee meetings to obtain progress reports by the
apple grades and packs committee.
This section expires
April 30, 2004.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
2. The legislature finds
that consignors of fruit, whether the sale is conducted as individual sales or
in a pooling arrangement, need timely and more complete marketing information
regarding terms of sale for various varieties of fruit so that producers can
make informed business decisions. The legislature finds that the affected
industry needs to review the type of information that is currently available,
the type of information that would be useful, and how best to make available
the additional information.
The legislature
requests that the Washington state horticultural association, the Wenatchee
valley traffic association, the Yakima valley growers and shippers association,
and the Washington growers clearinghouse association meet with each other to
conduct a thorough analysis of the marketing information needs of the industry
and provide recommendations to the legislature on how the market information
needs can best be addressed. The legislature requests that these groups develop
a joint report containing those items to improve the availability of market
information for which agreement has been attained. On issues for which
consensus has not been reached, each organization is requested to provide a
brief statement containing the perspective of that industry segment. The
legislature requests that these reports shall be completed by December 15,
2003, with a copy to be delivered to the director of the department of
agriculture and to the appropriate standing committees of the senate and the
house of representatives with jurisdiction over agricultural issues. These
legislative committees may schedule interim committee meetings to obtain
progress reports for activities being conducted under this section.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
3. (1) Each commission
merchant that received apples imported into the United States between January
1, 2002, and November 30, 2002, shall report to the department of agriculture
by December 15, 2002. The report shall include the volume of each variety of
imported apples that was received by and packed and sold by the commission
merchant.
(2) The department of
agriculture shall compile the information, in the aggregate, and provide a
report to the secretary of the senate and the chief clerk of the house of
representatives by December 31, 2002.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
4. A new section is added to
chapter 42.17 RCW to read as follows:
The
disclosure requirements of this chapter do not apply to information that can be
identified to a particular business and that is collected under section 3(1),
chapter . . ., Laws of 2002 (section 3(1) of this act).
