Justification of Change

Justification of Change Worksheet

Tart Cherry Information Collection (OMB No. 0581-0177)

Modification to Background Nomination Form

June 2022

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) maintains the “Background Form – Industry (SC-9)” in OMB No. 0581-0177 for use by multiple marketing order committees when collecting information from producers and handlers seeking nomination to serve on the respective committee. To determine whether a nominee meets the qualifications of a small business, the SC-9 form includes a yes-no question on if the individual’s company is a small business and indicates the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) $1,000,000 threshold for producers and $30,000,000 for handlers. The SBA’s 2022 finalized amendment to 13 CFR 121.201 necessitates the need for AMS to modify the producer threshold according to the producer’s product shown in the table below. In addition, this will also update the SBA threshold for handlers from 7,500,000 to 30,000,000. Making the change will allow AMS to accurately capture each nominees’ status as a small business.

Fruits, Vegetables. Nuts and Specialty Crops	Small Business Administration Size Standards (in millions) for Small Farms
Apricots	$ 3.0
Avocados	$ 3.0
Cranberries	$ 3.25
Orange Groves	$ 3.5
Citrus (except Orange) Groves	$ 3.75
Grape Vineyards	$3.5
Kiwifruit	$3.0
Pears	$3.0
Sweet Cherries	$3.0
Tart Cherries	$3.0
Pecans	$3.25
Spearmint Oil	$2.25
Potato	$3.75
Onions	$3.25
Fruits, Vegetables. Nuts and Specialty Crops	Small Business Administration Size Standards (in millions) for Small Farms
Olives	$3.0
Tomato farming (except under cover), field, bedding plant and seed production	$3.25
Tomato farming grown under cover	$4.0
Dates	$3.0
Prunes	$3.0
Almonds	$3.25
Raisins	$3.5
Walnuts	$3.25
Pistachios	$3.25
Hazelnuts	$3.25

In addition, the Raisin Administrative Committee (RAC) is one of 27 marketing order committees that now use the form that AMS standardized during the previous three-year renewal. RAC staff, which locally manages the form and provides it to raisin industry respondents on AMS’s behalf, seeks to insert content that enables it to ensure the individual’s eligibility in representing industry interests. The raisin-specific content will be deleted by AMS staff when providing the standardized form to other marketing committees for distribution to their industry members.

As indicated in Track Changes, AMS requests other editorial changes that provide clarity, foster responses, and fix a misspelling. Neither of the changes increase nor decrease the estimated length of time for completing the forms, which remains at 5 minutes.