§1359ff Provisions Applicable to Producers

Summary

Processors must promise the Secretary that any crop-year allotment they get will be shared fairly among the growers they serve and will reflect the growers’ past production. If a processor and a grower (or group of growers) disagree about how the allotment is shared, either side can ask the Secretary to settle it by arbitration. The arbitration must start within 45 days of the request and finish within 60 days. If a sugar beet plant closes and the growers want to deliver to a different processor, the growers can ask the Secretary to move some of the allotment. The Secretary can raise the new processor’s allocation up to that processor’s capacity, with the processor’s OK, and the extra amount comes off the closed plant’s allocation. The Secretary must decide on these petitions within 60 days. For sugarcane, “seed” means only varieties grown to make table sugar for people and not high-fiber types used for other purposes. If a State allotment exists and there are more than 250 sugarcane growers in the State (not counting Puerto Rico), the Secretary must check whether, without limits, growers would produce more sugar than needed to fill the allotment and keep a normal carryover supply. If so, the Secretary will set a proportionate share for each farm to limit how many acres may be harvested for sugar or seed. The Secretary sets a per-acre yield goal (no less than the average per-acre yield in the State for the two highest years among 1999, 2000, and 2001), adjusts it by the State’s average sugar recovery, converts the State allotment into a State acreage allotment, and then makes a uniform reduction percentage that is applied to each farm’s acreage base (the average acres from the two highest of 1999–2001, with disaster losses possibly counted as harvested). Producers must not knowingly harvest more than their share. A violation is only considered if the processor markets sugar that exceeds the processor’s allocation; the producer who caused excess sugar to be marketed is liable to the Commodity Credit Corporation for a civil penalty equal to one and one-half times the U.S. market value of the excess sugar. The Secretary can allow local committees to waive or change deadlines when needed, and can let producers harvest more or suspend shares if a natural disaster or other uncontrollable problem would otherwise prevent processors from meeting the State allotment and maintaining a normal carryover.