The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has amended the Marketing Order that regulates the handling of raisins produced from grapes grown in California.

Five amendments were proposed by the Raisin Administrative Committee (RAC) and three by AMS. Seven of the eight proposed amendments were favored by California Raisin Growers in a mail referendum, held Dec. 4-15, 2017.

The amendments favored by voters and included in the final order will authorize production research; establish new nomination procedures for independent grower member and alternate member seats; add authority to regulate quality; add authority to establish different regulations for different market destinations; add a continuance referenda requirement; and remove volume regulation and reserve pool authority from the Order.

This final rule also makes administrative revisions to subpart headings to bring the language into conformance with the office of federal register requirements.