CERTIFICATION OF ENROLLMENT

 

                   ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL 2773

 

 

                   Chapter 235, Laws of 2002

 

 

                        57th Legislature

                      2002 Regular Session

 

 

FRUIT SALES--MARKETING INFORMATION

 

 

 

                    EFFECTIVE DATE:  6/13/02

Passed by the House March 11, 2002

  Yeas 96   Nays 0

 

 

              FRANK CHOPP

Speaker of the House of Representatives

     

 

 

 

 

 

Passed by the Senate March 7, 2002

  Yeas 48   Nays 0

             CERTIFICATE

 

I, Cynthia Zehnder, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL 2773 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth.

 

 

 

           CYNTHIA ZEHNDER

                          Chief Clerk

 

 

 

 

               BRAD OWEN

President of the Senate

 

 

 

Approved March 28, 2002 Place Style On Codes above, and Style Off Codes below.                

                                FILED                

 

           March 28, 2002 - 9:08 a.m.

 

              GARY LOCKE

Governor of the State of Washington

                 Secretary of State

                 State of Washington


          _______________________________________________

 

                     ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL 2773

          _______________________________________________

 

                     AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE

 

             Passed Legislature - 2002 Regular Session

 

State of Washington      57th Legislature     2002 Regular Session

 

By Representatives Clements, Linville, Chandler and Grant

 

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).


    Passed the House March 11, 2002.

    Passed the Senate March 7, 2002.

Approved by the Governor March 28, 2002.

    Filed in Office of Secretary of State March 28, 2002.