Oregon Administrative Rules › Chapter 603 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE › Division 76 - SUPERVISION OF PRICE NEGOTIATIONS › Section 603-076-0106 - Active State Supervision of Blackberry Price Negotiations

Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 7, July 1, 2024
(1) Where more than
			 one blackberry dealer is agreeable to meet with a grower bargaining
			 association, it is the intent of the department that the process of state
			 supervised price negotiations for blackberries will assist in good faith
			 negotiations by all parties, the generation of credible data on which to make
			 pricing decisions, and the efficiency and efficacy of price
			 discovery.
(2) To ensure that the
			 Director is actively supervising the conduct of the grower representatives and
			 the blackberry dealers under the regulatory program in accordance with the
			 requirements of the federal antitrust laws and the Oregon Antitrust Act (ORS
			 646.740):
(a) The Director or the director's designee
			 shall attend all meetings between the grower association and blackberry dealer
			 representatives pursuant to the regulatory program and shall monitor, and if
			 necessary, mediate the price negotiations between the representatives at these
			 meetings.
(b) The Director or the
			 director's designee will ask each party who participates in the negotiations to
			 sign a pre-mediation agreement with the following commitments:
(A) Negotiate in good faith, arm's length
			 transactions, considering all relevant data presented;
(B) Develop, share, document, and evaluate
			 all information requested by the department for consideration and deliberation
			 by the Blackberry Bargaining Council, to include, but not limited to: by
			 variety or other appropriate categories - acres under production, inventory,
			 yields, import/export data, and market information (the department shall
			 aggregate all data sources and not reveal any proprietary data to any other
			 party);
(C) Actively participate
			 and contribute toward common interests and reasonable pricing agreements;
			 and,
(D) Comply with applicable
			 state laws pertaining to non-discrimination in pricing based on membership in a
			 grower bargaining association (ORS
			 646.535), payment term
			 requirements (ORS 585.213, unless otherwise
			 negotiated), and other considerations of Oregon's contract laws (ORS
			 72.3050).
(E) Pay the fees described in these
			 rules.
(c) The parties
			 to the supervised blackberry pricing negotiations shall, to the extent
			 practical, aggregate blackberry varieties into three categories: early
			 varieties, late varieties, and Boysenberries.
(d) The Blackberry Bargaining Council may,
			 under the direct supervision of the Department, conduct individual negotiations
			 each year for categories of blackberries as described in section (c), andhow
			 berries are packed (i.e., IQF, straight pack, puree, juice, etc.)
(e) Meetings of the Bargaining Council are
			 not subject to Oregon's public meeting laws. However, minutes of all meetings
			 between representatives of the growers association and the blackberry dealers
			 will be created and maintained by the Department and are subject to the
			 provisions of ORS 192.
(f) Within
			 two (2) days after the final meeting of the Blackberry Bargaining Council, the
			 Council shall either:
(A) Submit to the
			 Director, for review and approval, a negotiated price or price range effective
			 for the upcoming crop year; or,
(B)
			 Notify the Director that the bargaining representatives cannot arrive at a
			 negotiated price or price range, and suggest to the Director a specified price
			 range for consideration, from which the Director shall approve a price that
			 represents the interests of the state and the industry based on the information
			 and facts available; or,
(C)
			 Terminate the negotiations.
(g) Within two (2) days after the Blackberry
			 Bargaining Council's submission under section (f), the Director shall approve
			 an established price, or reject the parties' negotiated price and direct the
			 parties to continue their negotiations. The Director may request any
			 information deemed necessary from the parties to understand, review and approve
			 the established price. The Director may notify the parties of the decision
			 under this section in writing.
(h)
			 In approving the established price, the Director shall consider the negotiated
			 price reached by the representatives of the growers' association and the
			 blackberry dealers. The Director shall ensure the parties have considered, to
			 the extent practical, blackberry inventories for the respective type of berry
			 under consideration; acres in production; production factors; competitive
			 factors; local, national and world market prices; the influence of imported
			 product on prices; and any other factors the Director deems necessary to
			 approve the established price.
(i)
			 The Director must approve the established price and any adjustments to
			 established prices previously approved by the Director before the established
			 prices shall be implemented by the parties.
(j) The Director shall collect fees from the
			 parties who are participants in the blackberry regulatory program as follows:
(A) Fees may include reimbursement of costs
			 for Department consultation with the Attorney General as this consultation
			 directly relates to the Department's supervision of the regulatory program.
			 Such fees shall be divided evenly between the parties and reimbursed to the
			 Department
(B) The Department shall
			 assess a flat rate fee of $1,000 for each yearly negotiation meeting supervised
			 by the Department. This fee shall be assessed evenly across all parties or
			 otherwise fairly divided between the parties, such that the dealers pay half of
			 the fee and the growers association pays half of the fee. Other equitable
			 arrangements may be allowed as approved by the Director. The Department may
			 assess additional fees to reimburse the Department any cost or expense that
			 exceeds the flat rate fee. The costs will be documented by the Department,
			 evenly divided between the parties, and collected from the parties. Payment of
			 all fees is to the Department of Agriculture.