Industry

The Hass Avocado Board is seeking nominations for eight open seats — four open seats for producers and four for importers. The nomination process is open from March 1 to April 1, 2024.

On March 15, the Ventura County Local Working Group will host an informational meeting on several topics of interest to agricultural operations. Attendees may attend in person or virtually. 

In January 2024, the Commission received a letter from Avocado Growers of California (AGC) requesting that the Commission contact U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack regarding the call for a referendum on the Hass Avocado Board. The request was considered by the Commission at its February 22, 2024 Board meeting.

The San Diego Region Water Quality Board has a seat available on its seven-member Board. The San Diego County Farm Bureau is looking for interested applicants with an agricultural perspective that they can recommend for the position.

The new Expanding Our Roots: Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Mentorship Program will begin accepting enrollments on February 21. The free program is designed for farmers and ranchers with one to 10 years of experience and will pair 200 new farmers/ranchers with mentors who have more than 10 years of experience.

The California Avocado Commission’s District 1 and District 2 board members are hosting a grower meeting in Fallbrook, CA on February 19. Learn more.

The University of Florida, University of California – Riverside, University of California – Davis, University of Hawaii and Texas A&M University are conducting a laurel wilt and Phytophthora root rot survey to gather information concerning growers’ cultural management decisions and better determine the economic costs of management options.

According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, California is experiencing an unusually high number of invasive fruit fly detections this season. Quarantines are currently in place for the Oriental fruit fly and Queensland fruit fly in California avocado growing regions. Learn more.

AB-865 is proposed legislation that would require listed produce sold in California to be produced in accordance with California’s standards and policies in areas like pesticide use, wages and child labor laws. If enacted, AB-865 would require a “distributor that sells one of those agricultural products to a retailer with more than one retail location to provide to the retailer the self-attestation form received from a grower or producer.”