Section 104.54. Accounting, payment and verification procedures

(a) Production verification statement. The Program will provide a producer or collecting sales agent with production verification statement forms with which to verify the acreage, or the square-footage, in the case of greenhouse-grown vegetables, of vegetables which the producer raises within a particular growing season. A production verification statement form shall bear a unique serial number and shall require the following information of a producer completing the form for the first time within a particular growing season:

(1) The name and address of the producer.

(2) The name and address of the collecting sales agent, if the form is to be submitted to the Program through a collecting sales agent.

(3) The number of acres of vegetables raised by the producer for processing or fresh market use within the growing season, or other time period designated by the Program, if applicable.

(4) The square footage of greenhouse-grown vegetables raised by the producer within the growing season, or other time period designated by the Program.

(5) The calculation of the amount of producer charges owed the Program by the producer.

(6) The date upon which the form was completed.

(b) Subsequent production verification statements filed within the same growing season. A production verification statement form shall require the following information of a producer who has already completed a production verification statement form within that same growing season:

(1) The name and address of the producer.

(2) The serial number of the first production verification statement form completed by the producer within that same growing season.

(3) The name and address of the collecting sales agent, if the form is to be submitted to the Program through a collecting sales agent.

(4) The date upon which the form was completed.

(c) Circumstances under which no production verification statement form is required. If a producer has completed a production verification statement form, whether the original form described in subsection (a) or the abbreviated form described in subsection (b), and has submitted it to the Program through a collecting sales agent, that producer need not complete further production verification statement forms with respect to vegetable transactions with that particular collecting sales agent during that particular growing season.

(d) Deadline for collecting sales agents. A collecting sales agent shall submit a production verification statement or producer charge which it collects on the Program’s behalf by mailing or delivering the same to the Program within 30 days from the time that the collecting sales agent receives the production verification statement and deducts the producer charges reflected on the production verification statement from proceeds otherwise due the producer, or by October 31 immediately following the applicable growing season, whichever occurs first.

(e) Deadline for producers. A producer which does not submit a production verification statement and payment of producer charges through a collecting sales agent shall mail or deliver them to the Program by October 31 immediately following the applicable growing season.

(f) Form of payment. Whether the payments are made directly to the Program by the producer or are deducted by a collecting sales agent, payments of producer charges shall be by check or money order made payable to the ‘‘PA Vegetable Marketing and Research Program.’’

(g) Address. Production verification statements and payments of producer charges shall be mailed or delivered to:

Department of Agriculture
Bureau of Market Development
Attn: Pennsylvania Vegetable Marketing and
Research Program
2301 North Cameron Street
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17110-9408

Notation

Cross References

This section cited in 7 Pa. Code § 104.55 (relating to responsibilities of the producer); and 7 Pa. Code § 104.56 (relating to responsibilities of the collecting sales agent).