Agricultural commissions and reports.

The California Assembly Committee on Agriculture proposes comprehensive changes to agricultural reporting deadlines, commission governance, and industry definitions across multiple commodity sectors. The legislation modifies grape crush reporting timelines, extending the processor submission deadline to January 31 and adjusting subsequent publication dates for preliminary and final summary reports to March 15 and April 30, respectively.

The bill revises membership structures and operational procedures for several agricultural commissions. For the Avocado Commission, it establishes alternate producer members for each district and clarifies that handler members must maintain a minimum 1 percent industry volume threshold throughout their terms. The legislation also enables the commission to set assessments as either fixed rates or percentages of value, while maintaining the existing 6.5 percent cap on gross sales.

For nursery stock regulation, the secretary receives expanded authority to deny, suspend, or revoke licenses following investigations of violations related to the Grape Rootstock Improvement Commission. In the olive oil sector, the bill incorporates toll processing operations into handler and producer definitions, with toll processors explicitly defined as those who process olives into olive oil on behalf of producers.

The Apple Commission gains new authority to recommend quality standards and product labeling requirements to the secretary under the California Marketing Act of 1937. Throughout these changes, the legislation maintains existing assessment collection mechanisms, with handlers continuing to serve as trustees of deducted funds until remittance to the relevant commission.