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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 244 / Thursday, December 23, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
One producer member and alternate are from each of the top eight blueberry producing states, based upon the average of the total tons produced over the previous three years. Currently, these states include California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington.
Of the remaining eight Council members and alternates, four members and alternates are importers. Two members and alternates must be an exporter, defined in 1218.40a4 as a blueberry producer currently shipping blueberries into the U.S. from the two largest foreign blueberry production areas, based on a three-year average
currently Chile and Canada. One member and alternate must be a first handler, defined in 1218.40a5 as a U.S. based independent or cooperative organization which is a producer/
shipper of domestic blueberries. Finally, the Order provides that one member and alternate must represent the public. The public member representation on research and promotion boards is optional as provided for in the 1996 Act.
Section 1218.40b of the Order specifies that, at least once every five years, the Council will review the geographical distribution of the production of blueberries in the United States and the quantity of imports. The
review is conducted through an audit of state crop production figures and Council assessment records. If warranted, the Council will recommend to the Secretary that its membership be altered to reflect changes in the geographical distribution of domestic blueberry production and the quantity of imports.
The Council met on November 18, 2020, and then again on June 9, 2021, to review domestic production data, import data, and assessment data for the past three years 20172019. This data is summarized in Table 1 below:

TABLE 1U.S. AND IMPORT QUANTITIES AND ASSESSMENT DATA
U.S. croputilized production 1
1,000 lbs
Year
2017
2018
2019
3-year average
Sources:
2020.

1

National Agricultural Statistics Service NASS;

As shown in Table 1, the quantity of imported blueberries, as well as import
2

Imports 1,000 lbs 2

512,740
562,300
673,050
582,697

Import assessments3

$3,968,438
4,263,177
5,172,055
4,467,890

$3,577,559
4,229,333
5,040,722
4,282,538

398,190
473,073
579,181
483,481

U.S. Customs and Border Protection;

assessments collected, has increased in recent years.
In that time, there has been a substantial increase of imported product
Domestic U.S.
assessments3

3

Council Financial Audit Records 2019

From both Peru and Mexico, with Peru exports into the U.S. surpassing Canada in 2019, as shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2QUANTITY OF BLUEBERRIES FROM FOREIGN PRODUCTION AREAS
Quantity 1,000 lbs Foreign blueberry production areas shipping into the United States 2017
Chile
Canada
Peru
Mexico
Argentina
All Other Countries

162,932
111,979
41,516
54,212
26,099
1,451

2018

2019

181,951
110,755
82,273
72,537
23,581
1,976

164,872
142,425
154,288
93,840
22,130
1,627

3-year average 169,918
121,720
92,692
73,530
23,937
1,685

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Source: U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In 2015, the Council, after reviewing import and domestic production and assessment data, recommended changes to the membership; one such change included adding an additional exporter seat. At that time, data indicated considerable increased imports from Chile. The addition of the second exporter member allowed exporters from both Chile and Canada, the two countries shipping the greatest volume of blueberries into the U.S., to be represented on the Council. The Council took a similar approach when reviewing and recommending this recent change in membership. It recognized the
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significant volume of imports from Peru and Mexico, discussing the need to add representatives from those production areas to the Council. Given the decision to try to maintain its current size and based on the data reviewed, it concluded it was important to have foreign producer representation similar to the structure of the state producer representation. Therefore, it recommended the addition of two exporter members. Four exporter member positions will provide the four largest foreign producing areas importing into the U.S., which represents ninety-five percent of the
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total volume of blueberries imported into the U.S., a voice on the Council.
This will realign the Councils membership to better reflect the distribution of domestic production and the quantity of imports into the U.S.
The Council conducts nominations two out of every three years. The Council is currently conducting nominations for seven member and alternate positions year-one cycle whose three-year term of office begins January 1, 2022, ending December 31, 2024. These include the four regional producer members, one exporter member, one importer member, the
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