The Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) will explore a potential service fee reduction from 1% to 0.75% during zone meetings this fall, culminating in a vote at the provincial Annual General Meeting in January.
“APG will engage the membership on potential changes to the organization’s service fees, or levy, during this meeting season,” said APG Executive Director Leanne Fischbuch. “The membership will decide whether to pursue a reduction from 1% to 0.75% effective August 1, 2018, the new growing season, pending approval by the Alberta Agricultural Products Marketing Council.”
The APG Board of Directors decided at its meeting last week to explore a potential service fee reduction following a year that saw 900 new pulse growers added to its membership, and high acres.
“The board felt that a reduction in service fees to 0.75% would still afford APG continued investment in research activities, investment in Pulse Canada and other national voices for the industry, while providing value to farmers,” said APG Chair D’Arcy Hilgartner. “We also discussed how soybean expansion will play into APG’s revenue, and while we don’t think it will immediately reach the levels Manitoba enjoys, we expect that it will also add to our service fees in the future.”
APG’s administrative, research, marketing, and extension activities are financed by the collection of service charges from producers. The service charges, or levy, are collected by the dealer or the person who received the pulses from the producer. The service charges are assessed against all producers on a uniform unit basis and calculated on the quantity of the various pulses sold by the producers. The current rate has been in place since 2003.
Members are encouraged to learn more by attending their zone meetings in November and December, as well as voting at the provincial Annual General Meeting on January 31 during FarmTech. Details about these events are available at
https://pulse.ab.ca/event/.
The Alberta Pulse Growers Commission represents 6,000 growers of field pea, dry bean, lentil, chickpea, faba bean and soybean in Alberta. Our vision is to have Alberta pulses recognized by consumers as environmentally friendly, healthy, nutritious, and recognized by all producers as being an essential element in a sustainable cropping system.
Source : Albertapulse