§ 253 - Powers and duties of the Vermont apple marketing board - Vermont Statutes

§ 253. Powers and duties of the Vermont apple marketing board

(a) The board may make and issue marketing rules, after due notice and opportunity for hearing, subject to approval of not less than 51 percent of the eligible producers who participate in the referendum.

(b) The board may, and upon written petition duly signed by 25 percent of the producers in the area shall amend or terminate the marketing rule after due notice and opportunity for hearing, but subject to the approval of not less than 51 percent of producers participating in a referendum vote.

(c) Any marketing agreement or order issued by the board pursuant to this chapter may contain any or all of the following:

(1) establishment of research programs designed to further the purposes of this chapter; any research program shall be coordinated with the University of Vermont and the state colleges to assure that duplicate state research projects are not conducted simultaneously;

(2) provision for determining the handling and marketing conditions of apples;

(3) provision for contracting with appropriate parties for promotion, paid advertising and/or publicity of apples; and

(4) establishment of a schedule of fees to be charged to producers which are necessary to fund the marketing order, but no producer shall be assessed a dollar amount which exceeds five percent of his or her gross sales of apples during the current year. Any producer who claims that he or she has been assessed a fee higher than a dollar amount which exceeds five percent of his or her gross sales of apples during the current year shall provide the board with all information which the board requests in order to evaluate the claim. The fee requirements of this subdivision shall not apply to those growers who annually produce or wholesale 500 bushels or fewer of apples.

(d) The board or the secretary may temporarily suspend the operations of an effective marketing rule for a continuing period of not longer than one growing and marketing season, if the purposes of this chapter are deemed unnecessary during that season. (Added 1983, No. 250 (Adj. Sess.); amended 1985, No. 41, § 2, eff. May 11, 1985; 1989, No. 256 (Adj. Sess.), § 10(a), eff. Jan. 1, 1991; 1993, No. 73, § 1, eff. June 10, 1993; 2003, No. 42, § 2, eff. May 27, 2003.)