USDA Terminates Marketing Orders For Nectarines And Peaches

Posted by Christina Herrick|March 29, 2011

USDA has announced that it will terminate the marketing order programs for California nectarines and peaches.

From Jan. 12 – Feb. 2, 2011, three separate referenda were conducted. Under the terms of the marketing orders, growers vote every four years on whether to continue their programs. USDA considers termination if less than a two-thirds majority of growers voting, by number and production volume, favor continuance.

Among growers of nectarines, peaches, and fresh pears, 63% of nectarine growers, who produced 36% of the volume represented in the referendum, favored continuance, and 62% of peach growers, who produced 36% of the volume, favored continuance. Of pear growers, 94%, representing 99% of the volume, favored continuance.

The nectarine order had been in effect since 1958, and the combined peach and fresh pear order has been in effect since 1939. Over the years, the orders have been used to provide quality standards for tree fruit shipped into fresh markets. Production research and marketing research and promotion programs have also been conducted under the orders.

USDA will seek to suspend all nectarine and peach handling regulations for the 2011 season. Termination proceedings for the nectarine and peach order provisions will begin immediately. There are no plans to terminate the pear order provisions, which have been suspended since 1994.