Marketing Division Organization and Structure

The Marketing Services team assists in the orderly marketing of California's food and agricultural commodities. The Division performs a variety of functions

It furnishes regulatory, informational and other marketing services for agricultural producers, handlers, consumers and others involved in the marketing process.

It provides information and economic analysis on agricultural marketing issues.

It provides the framework and coordination for long-term strategic marketing of California's diverse agricultural products.

A brief description of each Branch is listed below.

Agricultural Statistics Branch The California Agricultural Statistics Service (CASS) prepares and distributes statistics on California agriculture. The Branch is operated under cooperative agreement with the United States Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS). CDFA and USDA work together to provide relevant, accurate and unbiased agricultural statistic information.

Statistical information includes estimates of planted and harvested acreage, production, stocks, and crop use. Yield and production forecasts are issued monthly during the growing season.

The Branch also publishes statistics covering inventory numbers, production and prices of livestock and poultry and their products, and periodic reports of weather, crop and range conditions.

Dairy Marketing Branch The Branch oversees the production and marketing of milk and dairy products as well as regulates minimum milk farm prices and dairy trade practices in the marketplace. The Branch also licenses milk handlers in the state.

Working closely with the Milk Pooling Branch, Dairy Marketing promotes, fosters and encourages sound production and marketing of milk that reflect market conditions by resolving critical policy issues. The Branch is organized into five units, each of which concentrates on a specific area of work that contributes to administration of the Plans. The Branch's five units are Cost of Production, Manufacturing Cost, Enforcement, Statistics and Economics.

Market Enforcement The Branch licenses and regulates produce dealers and food processors to maintain orderly marketing of California farm commodities (with the exception of milk and timber).

The Branch fulfills this mission by gaining compliance through cooperation, processing license applications, conducting audits and applying corrective enforcement in accordance with state regulations.

Dispute resolution services (i.e., mediation; arbitration) allow the Branch to promote equitable marketing practices amongst producers, handlers and processors.

Milk Pooling Working closely with the Dairy Marketing Branch, Milk Pooling ensures satisfactory marketing conditions and a reasonable amount of stability and prosperity in the production of milk. The Branch administers the Milk Pooling Act which provides standards for distributing monthly statewide market milk revenues to all California dairy producers

The Branch also administers the Milk Producer Security Trust Fund which helps ensure payments to dairy farmers from milk buyers (in the event of default).

Marketing Branch The Branch provides administrative guidance for Marketing Programs in the state. The purpose of marketing programs is to provide agricultural producers and handlers an organizational structure, operating under government sanction, that allows them to solve production and marketing problems collectively that they could not address individually. Current marketing programs' activities include commodity promotion, research, and maintenance of quality standards.

There are currently 29 marketing orders, 3 councils, and 3 agreements operating under the Marketing Act and four councils and 21 Commissions operating under their individual law.