2024 - Your Commission at Work

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ASSESSMENTS

To fulfill the mission of our Charter, the NCSPC annually sends assessment invoices to sweetpotato producers, under a North Carolina General Statute approved by our General Assembly in 1995. A producer is any individual, partnership, firm, or corporation who is an owner, producer, handler, storer, processor, manager who has planted one or more acres of sweetpotatoes. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was issued to the NCSPC to collect certification information from USDA regarding annual sweetpotato certifications. This information is confidential and can ONLY be used for processing assessment invoices. Each producer or entity who certifies sweetpotato acreage will receive an invoice for $15 per planted acre. As per the general statute, any producer who fails to pay assessments by the due date will receive a ten percent (10%) penalty of the unpaid assessment, plus interest at a rate of 1 percent (1%) of the unpaid assessment balance for each month the assessment remains unpaid . There are no refunds of assessments paid, and no exemptions granted for any producer receiving loss payments from Noninsured Assistance Program (NAP) and or sweetpotato Disaster Relief Programs, including Whole Farm Insurance. The ONLY exceptions to this are:

A) Sweetpotato plant beds, IF certified as “seed”

B) Unharvested acreage will be exempt from assessments if ALL the following criteria are met. 1. The county in which the acreage is located has been declared a disaster by the Farm Service Agency.

2. A Failed Acreage Report (FSA Form 576) is filed by the NAPS deadline or November 1 whichever comes first.

3. Submit verification of unharvested acreage to the NCSPC using the appropriate Farm Service Agency inspection forms with certification of the Farm Service Agency.

Why do I pay assessments?

83,288.28

2024 certified sweetpotato acres, as reported by USDA (Kansas City):

Funds received through annual assessments of planted acres are used to carry out promotional, educational, and research activities to help set North Carolina sweetpotatoes apart as the premiere sweetpotato. All efforts embarked upon to achieve this have been presented to the board of directors by our committees once they have carefully reviewed each activity. These activities have been vetted through the ‘how does this benefit our growers’ lens. The following pages delve into this year’s efforts to promote the consumption of YOUR North Carolina Sweetpotatoes.

It is important to compare your INVOICE to your FSA-578 and verify the acreage reported by USDA is captured and billed correctly.

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If errors exist, please notify the NCSPC office immediately.