The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is lowering the assessment rate in parts of Idaho and Oregon.

Beginning Aug. 1, the rate will be lowered from $0.0025 to $0.002 per hundredweight of potatoes handled. The lowered assessment rate was recommended by the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Potato Committee, which oversees the marketing order regulations for handling potatoes grown in certain counties in Idaho and Malheur County, OR. The assessment rate is used to fund expenses of the marketing program.