Date Farmers Face 400% Fee Hike in California County
Published Date: 6/18/2026
Proposed Rule
Summary
If you grow or pack dates in Riverside County, California, get ready! The fee you pay per hundredweight of dates is proposed to jump from 5 cents to 25 cents starting with the 2025-2026 crop year. This change helps support the date industry and will stay in place until something new comes along. Don’t forget to share your thoughts by July 20, 2026!
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 2 costs, 0 mixed.
Handlers: Assessment Rate Jump
If you handle (pack or market) dates produced in Riverside County, California, the handler assessment rises from $0.05 to $0.25 per hundredweight starting October 1, 2025. The Committee expects 300,000 hundredweight of assessable dates, which would generate $75,000 in assessment revenue at the new rate, and the rate will remain in effect until modified, suspended, or terminated.
Producers: Small Cost Pass-Through Risk
If you grow dates in Riverside County, California, some of the increased $0.25 per hundredweight handler assessment may be passed on to producers beginning October 1, 2025. The Committee estimates this assessment equals about 0.18 percent of producer revenue (based on an estimated producer price of $136.75 per hundredweight), and most of the roughly 70 local producers are considered small entities under SBA thresholds.
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