The Washington State Department of Agriculture plans to require Washington apple shippers to submit season-end reports on the volume of fruit they shipped. Shippers are required to submit to the Department of Agriculture a certificate of compliance for each load as it is shipped. This is entered into the department’s computer database. The Washington Apple Commission collects an assessment of 3.5 cents per box, based on those numbers. Cameron Crump, the department’s fruit and vegetable administrator, said it works on an honor system and there is no mechanism for confirming that the volume being reported is correct. The need for […]