News

Apple growers to vote on assessment Tuesday

By Lightning Reports, Published: June 25, 2023

The North Carolina Apple Growers Association will conduct a referendum on Tuesday, June 27, for the assessment of apples sold to first purchasers in North Carolina.

Voting will take place during regular business hours at county extension offices in counties where commercial apple growing occurs, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services announced in a news release sent on behalf of the North Carolina Apple Growers Association.
The method and amount of assessment being considered will remain as it has been in the past. Individuals may belong to multiple categories and are responsible to each where applicable:
• PACKERS – 5 cents per pack bushel. This is anyone who puts apples into a box. A bulk box/volume filled carton qualifies for this charge.
• PROCESSORS – 5 cents per hundred weight. (2.1 cents per bushel if the fruit is not weighted). This is any company that buys apples for slicers, sauce, juice, or other forms of processing. This would also be any roadside market that presses apples for fresh cider.
• BROKER – See packer or processor depending on the market, if you are a broker that markets fruit for growers and pays the grower. The broker is responsible for paying the assessment if the customer is not paying the assessment.
• ROADSIDE MARKETS - $100 per year. This is anyone who grows fruit and sells direct to the general public.
• GROWER – 5 cents per hundred weight (2.1 cents per bushel if fruit is not weighed). This is any grower who sells fruit by the bin to someone such as a roadside market or farmer’s market.

Funds from the assessment will be used to promote marketing, research, use and sale of North Carolina apples. The votes will be collected and tabulated by N.C. State University and results published by the agriculture department.