Watermelon Research and Promotion Plan; Increased Assessment Rate

This proposed rulemaking would implement a recommendation from the National Watermelon Promotion Board to increase the assessment rate from six cents per hundredweight to nine cents per hundredweight. Domestic watermelon producers of 10 acres or more and domestic first handlers of watermelons would each pay four and a half cents per hundredweight, and importers of 150,000 pounds or more annually of watermelons would pay nine cents per hundredweight. This proposed rulemaking would also amend current regulatory language to correct non- substantive and typographical errors.