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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 154 / Friday, August 13, 2021 / Proposed Rules
each member has an alternate with the same qualifications as the member would remain unchanged. Four members and their alternates would be producers, officers, or employees of producers producer members. Four members and their alternates would be handlers, officers, or employees of handlers handler members. One member and alternate would be either a producer, handler, or officer or employee thereof. One member and alternate would represent the public.
Since promulgation of the Order in 1980, the California table grape industry has seen reductions of about 55% of its producers and 58% of registered handlers. Natural industry consolidation and land development pressure have also contributed to this decline. Decreasing the Committees size from 12 members to 10 members would make Committee membership more reflective of todays industry and enable the Committee to fill all its member positions without difficulty.

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Proposal 2Revise Quorum and Voting Requirements Currently, 925.30 states that eight members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum, and any action of the committee shall require at least eight concurring votes.
The proposed change would modify 925.30 to allow six members to constitute a quorum including at a minimum one producer member and one handler member, with six concurring votes required to pass any motion or approve any Committee action. The Committee is experiencing difficulties filling all seats and obtaining a quorum at meetings to conduct business activities. Adjusting current requirements would enable the Committee to operate fully mitigating the risk of not establishing a quorum during scheduled meetings and not having the required votes to pass any action. These changes would help to streamline the Committees operations and increase its effectiveness.
Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis Pursuant to requirements set forth in the Regulatory Flexibility Act RFA 5
U.S.C. 601612, AMS has considered the economic impact of this proposed rule on small entities. Accordingly, AMS has prepared this initial regulatory flexibility analysis.
The purpose of the RFA is to fit regulatory actions to the scale of businesses subject to such actions so that small businesses will not be unduly or disproportionately burdened.
Small agricultural producers have been defined by the Small Business
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as those having annual receipts of no more than $1,000,000. Small agricultural service firms handlers are defined as those with annual receipts of no more than $30,000,000.
Proposed amendments to the California desert grape marketing order would reduce the number of member and alternate seats on the California Desert Grape Administrative Committee from 12 to 10 and reduce quorum and voting requirements from 8 to 6
members. These amendments are necessary to reflect the industrys consolidation. Since the promulgation of the marketing order in 1980, the California desert grape industry has lost roughly 55 percent of its producers and 58 percent of the registered handlers.
The Committee reports that there are 21 producers and 10 handlers of table grapes in the marketing order production region. The Committee packout reports show that average annual packout for 2018 through 2020
was 3.2127 million 18-pound containers, equivalent to 28,914 tons.
The 3-year average of California fresh table grape prices was $1,267 per ton.
Multiplying quantity times price yields an annual average crop value estimate of $36.634 million. Dividing the average crop value estimate by the number of producers 21 yields an average crop value per producer of $1.744 million, moderately larger than the SBA small farm size threshold of $1,000,000.
Therefore, using the estimated prices, packout volume, and number of producers, and assuming a normal bellcurve distribution of receipts among producers, AMS estimates the majority of producers would qualify as large businesses under the SBA definition.
Dividing the average crop value of $36.634 million by the number of handers 10 yields a per-handler estimate of $3.663 million, well below the SBA small business threshold of $30,000,000 in annual receipts.
However, that computation measures handler annual receipts using producerlevel crop value data, since AMS is unable to locate an estimate of a hander margin. A range of handler margin estimates would be 30 to 40 percent above the grower price. Applying those two percentages, a range of handler annual receipts estimates would be $4.8
to $5.1 million, still well below $30,000,000. Therefore, using these estimated prices, utilization volume, handler margin estimates and number of handlers, and assuming a normal bellcurve distribution of receipts among handlers, AMS estimates that the majority of handlers would meet the SBA definition of small businesses.

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AMS has determined that these proposed amendments would not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small businesses. Rather, large and small entities alike would be expected to benefit from the Committees improved ability to address important issues of interest to all on a timely basis. The proposed reduction in the number of seats on the Committee, and the reduced quorum and voting requirements, would not require any significant changes in producer or handler business operations, and no significant industry educational effort would be needed. Producers and handlers, large and small alike, would incur no additional costs. No small businesses would be unduly or disproportionately burdened.
Paperwork Reduction Act In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35, the Orders information collection requirements have been previously approved by OMB and assigned OMB No. 05810189, Fruit Crops. No changes in those requirements are necessary because of this action. Should any changes become necessary, they would be submitted to OMB for approval.
This proposed rule would impose no additional reporting or recordkeeping requirements on either small or large California table grape handlers. As with all Federal marketing order programs, reports and forms are periodically reviewed to reduce information requirements and duplication by industry and public-sector agencies.
AMS is committed to complying with the E-Government Act, to promote the use of the internet and other information technologies to provide increased opportunities for citizen access to Government information and services, and for other purposes.
USDA has not identified any relevant Federal rules that duplicate, overlap, or conflict with this action.
The Committees meetings are widely publicized throughout the southeastern California table grape production area.
All interested persons are invited to attend the meeting and encouraged to participate in Committee deliberations on all issues. Like all Committee meetings, the April 13, 2021 meeting was public, and all entities, both large and small, were encouraged to express their views on the proposals.
Interested persons are invited to submit comments on the proposed amendments to the Order, including comments on the regulatory and information collection impacts of this action on small businesses.

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