Rochester,
N.Y.—Industry representatives gathered for a full day of onion
talks during the 2004 Empire State Fruit and Vegetable Expo held
Feb. 11 in Rochester, N.Y.
As part of the onion session, Carolyn L. Shelby, senior marketing
specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture, spoke
to onion growers and industry representatives about how producers
can make sure they get paid for their product through the Perishable
Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA).
PACA of 1930, she explained, promotes fair trading in the fruit
and vegetable industries by establishing a code of conduct and an
enforcement mechanism, and it provides a forum for dealers to resolve
their contractual disputes. Wholesale dealers, shippers, grower
agents, independent sales agents, commission merchants, some processors,
distributors, some truckers, large retailers and some growers are
covered by PACA.
With the USDA for 17 years, Shelby spent 15 of those years working
with PACA itself. Enforcement and resolving of contractual disputes
are most of what she does.
“How many people here sell and know with surety that their
customers hold PACA licenses?” she asked. “Always know
who you’re dealing with. That can be as simple as calling
the PACA office and asking whether or not that particular firm has
a valid PACA license. This is especially important if you’re
dealing with someone you haven’t dealt with before.”
Major problems in the trade include arbitrary rejections, market
decline, overstocks, failure to ship when market advances, misbranding,
bankruptcies and dealers refusing payment or clipping the bill.
In any of these instances, call one of the five regional PACA offices.
“I’m sure there are people who have shipped 10 loads
of onions to a customer who has ordered them, and the customer sends
eight of the loads back because of overstock or market prices. That
is a violation of PACA. They purchased them; they should be taking
them; you should be paid for them,” she said.
Shelby asked an audience member what happened when his payment was
clipped $100 by the customer and listed as a loading fee. According
to PACA, the customer was responsible for those loading costs because
the grower had not agreed to pay them beforehand.
“It’s a cost of doing business of the receiver, and
if you file a complaint, you’re going to get loading fees
back,” she said. “Most people think $100 isn’t
a lot, but if you sell 10 loads of onions to somebody, and they’re
clipping that much from each load, that’s $1,000 going into
their pocket and not yours.”
PACA Office
Arlington, Texas—(888) 901-6137
