Domestic Dates Produced or Packed in Riverside County, California; Decreased Assessment Rate

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is adopting as a final rule, without change, an interim rule that decreased the assessment rate established for the California Date Administrative Committee (Committee) for the 2012-13 and subsequent crop years from $1.00 to $0.90 per hundredweight of dates handled. The Committee locally administers the marketing order which regulates the handling of dates grown or packed in Riverside County, California. Assessments upon date handlers are used by the Committee to fund reasonable and necessary expenses of the program. The crop year begins October 1 and ends September 30. The interim rule was necessary because the 2012-13 crop is expected to be larger than last year's crop and the current assessment rate would generate excess assessment revenues.