The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking nominees for the American Pecan Council to fill five grower, three sheller, one accumulator, one public member, and their respective alternate seats. Nominations will be accepted Feb. 15 – April 1, 2024. Ballots will be mailed to eligible voters May 1 and responses must be received by June 15. The appointed members will serve a four-year term of office beginning Oct. 1, 2024.

To be eligible to serve, a grower or producer must have produced a minimum of 50,000 pounds of inshell pecans during fiscal years 2020-2023 (Oct. 1, 2019-Sept. 30, 2023) or must own a minimum of 30 pecan acres. Shellers must convert inshell pecans to shelled pecans and sell the output into the stream of commerce, both within and outside of the production area, and must have shelled more than one million pounds of inshell pecans in fiscal year 2023 (Oct. 1, 2022-Sept. 30, 2023).

Eligible accumulators must have compiled inshell pecans from other persons for the purpose of resale or transfer. The public member and alternate public member may not have any financial interest, individually or corporately in pecans, or any affiliation with persons vested in the pecan industry.

Once appointed, grower and sheller members of the council will nominate the public member, accumulator member and their respective alternates from the identified candidates for approval by the Secretary.

For nomination information, contact the council’s Chief Executive Officer, Anne Warden, at (817) 916-0200 or by email at awarden@americanpecan.com, or USDA Marketing Specialist Abigail Maharaj at (863) 324-3375 or by email at Abigail.Mahraj@usda.gov.

The marketing order authorizes data collection, research and promotion activities, and regulation of grade, size, quality, pack, and containers for pecans. The council consists of nine grower members, six sheller members, one accumulator member, and one public member. Each member will have one alternate. More information about the council is available on the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) American Pecan Council webpage or on the council’s website at americanpecan.com.

Authorized by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, marketing orders are industry-driven programs that help producers and handlers achieve marketing success by leveraging their own funds to design and execute programs that they would not be able to do individually. AMS provides oversight to fruit, vegetable and specialty crops marketing orders and agreements to help ensure fiscal accountability and program integrity.

AMS policy is that diversity of the boards, councils, and committees it oversees should reflect the diversity of their industries in terms of the experience of members, methods of production and distribution, marketing strategies, and other distinguishing factors, including but not limited to individuals from historically underserved communities, that will bring different perspectives and ideas to the table. Throughout the full nomination process, the industry must conduct extensive outreach, paying particular attention to reaching underserved communities, and consider the diversity of the population served and the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the members to serve a diverse population.