2022- Your Commission At Work

(b) Assessments shall be due on September 1 of each year. Any producer who fails to pay assessments by September 30 of each year shall also pay a penalty of ten percent (10%) of the unpaid assessment, plus a penalty of one percent (1%) of the unpaid assessment for each month the assessment remains unpaid. The Commissioner of Agriculture shall remit all assessments received to the duly certified agency representing the producers of sweet potatoes. The duly certified agency representing the producers of sweet potatoes may conduct inspections and audits of sweet potato producers in order to verify the number of acres of sweet potatoes planted and may bring an action to recover unpaid assessments and penalties and the reasonable costs of such action, including attorneys' fees.

(c) There shall be no refund of assessments collected pursuant to this section.

(d) For the purposes of this section, 'producer' shall be defined as a grower of one acre or more of sweet potatoes."

On January 20, 2022, a referendum was conducted at the Annual Meeting in Goldsboro, NC. The membership in attendance unanimously voted to continue assessing themselves for a six (6) year period at the current rate of $15 per acre. Efforts to obtain a Memorandum of Understanding with USDA-FSA regarding documenting and reporting sweetpotato acreage was finalized in 2010. This MoU with USDA provides acreage information to the Commission, which is utilized to create assessment invoices. Producer information collected with this Memorandum of Understanding, including is protected information and will not be shared, therefore a written request must be received to advertise your company as a member on the Commission website. The Finance Committee presents an annual budget to the Board of Directors for approval. The 2022-2023 budget is based on the USDA reported total of 81,000 to administer the programs and activities to fulfill our mission of promoting consumption of North Carolina Sweetpotatoes.

Audited financial statements are available for member review at our Annual Meeting in January.

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