Our Doors are Open
to You!
Sonia Jimenez Deputy Administrator, Specialty Crops Program
Through
my visits and discussions with our customers, other produce industry
stakeholders and our staff, one thing is clear to me: the specialty crops
industry is exceptionally committed to getting the freshest and highest quality
fruits, vegetables, nuts and other specialty crops from the field to consumers
tables and other customers as quickly and efficiently as possible. Our
Specialty Crops Program (SCP) shares that same commitment, and over the years,
we have developed and refined services to help growers, shippers, wholesalers,
retailers and others in the marketing chain do just that. The USDA's inspection, grading and
auditing service, Specialty Crops
Market News, marketing
orders, and
research
and promotion programs support your goals by providing buyers and sellers alike with the data,
tools and services they need to grow domestic and international markets.
The
produce industry is incredibly complex.
You offer hundreds of different commodities to the consumer in a
multitude of forms. Through meetings,
conversations, and other engagements in the coming months, I look forward to
hearing about your unique business challenges and how our services and tools can
help meet your customer’s needs. At the
same time, I want to hear what is not working for you. If there is a need to update, change or
eliminate a programs or service, I want to hear that too. I want this to be a partnership of constant
communication.
This
issue of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) “Specialty Crops Program
Newsletter,” focuses on multiple ways we are working to adapt our services to
meet your evolving needs and some of our current programs that can help you
build markets.
We are proud to serve you and our doors are
always open to you!
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Christopher Purdy Associate Deputy
Administrator, Specialty Crops Program
AMS
has been providing on-demand, user-fee funded inspection and grading services
to the specialty crops industry since 1917.
For over 100 years, we have adapted and improved our services, introducing
new offerings to meet evolving market needs.
Entering our second century of service, we are committed to ensuring
that our improvement process remains dynamic and robust. We are carrying out our continuous
improvement process with the recognition that we, like you, must be as
efficient as possible to ensure our cost-effectiveness to our customers. With these goals in mind, we are examining
how we can best enhance our services to meet your evolving needs.
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Peter Wood, Abigail Campos, & Jen Dougherty
Marketing
orders and agreements are industry-driven programs that help fruit, vegetable,
and specialty crop producers and handlers achieve marketing success. Working
together, industry members leverage their own funds to design and execute
programs that they would not be able to do individually. Each marketing
order program is tailored to address the needs of its specific industry.
We oversee 22 research and promotion (R&P) boards that
empower farmers, ranchers, and agricultural businesses. Every R&P program’s
mission is to maintain and expand the markets for its commodity. The past few months, Secretary Perdue has announced new appointments to serve on the
following Specialty Crops boards:
Be a voice for your industry by serving on a Research &
Promotion Program board.
Melissa Tharp Acting Deputy Administrator, Science &
Technology Program
Are you interested in a
USDA program providing an important marketing tool for plant breeders?
The AMS Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) provides intellectual property
rights protection to breeders of varieties of seeds and tuber (potatoes)
propagated plants that are new, distinct, uniform, and stable. Once plant
variety protection is granted, the variety owner has exclusive legal rights to
market and sell their varieties, while excluding others from selling this new
variety. This legal protection promotes the development of new varieties
that can increase yield and crop productivity, increase farmer’s income, expand
trade and promote economic growth.
AMS identified a clear
opportunity to improve the customer experience and adopt a new technology to
automate PVP applications. In October, 2017 the PVPO launched a system
that lets customers Apply
for PVP electronically. The new system provides an
efficient, secure way to file new plant variety protection applications and pay
fees electronically. It features application filing with supporting data and analysis
and can accept high-resolution photographs. For current customers, the
new electronic application system will make it easier to check the status of an
application or amend an existing application.
For more information about the PVPO and the
benefits of protecting your plant varieties visit the Plant Variety
Protection page or contact
us at pvpomail@ams.usda.gov.
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