American Sesame Growers Association

 

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT
August 2007

To the members and friends of ASGA,

In January 2006 we had an informal meeting to begin our organizational process, and on February 10, 2006 we were incorporated in the State of Texas. I would like to provide the following report on our initial activities and plans for the balance of this year.

First, may I please encourage you to renew your membership by sending your check to the ASGA office in the enclosed envelope? Much of our funding has come from industrial members, and we certainly need a good representation of producer and other members.

Crop Insurance. Our major effort over the last year and a half has been focused on initiating a Multiple Peril Crop Insurance pilot program for sesame. Julian Heron and Dave Juday, both of our Washington, DC law firm, Tuttle Taylor and Heron, and I have made numerous calls on USDA officials and congressional staffs.

We were invited to present written testimony on why crop insurance for sesame is important at the hearings of the House Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management in Washington, DC on Wednesday, April 26, 2006. We were also invited to present written testimony for the Field Hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture, Review of Federal Farm Policy in San Angelo, Texas on Tuesday, May 9, 2006. Both of these testimonies can be found on our website.
In August of last year our group visited USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) in Kansas City, MO and made a major presentation. Julian Heron and Erick Richards represented ASGA along with Glenn Smith and Jerry Riney from Sesaco. However, RMA took no action on our request.

In September we brought a group of ASGA Board members, producers and industrial members to Washington, DC. They included Erick Richards, ASGA Board member, Dan Collins, President of T.J. Harkin and Sesame Solutions, LLC, Sam Mori, President and CEO, TH Foods, Inc., Alan Klaus, Manger, Uvalde County Coop, Julian Heron, Dave Juday and, from Sesaco, Glenn Smith and Jerry Riney. The group visited top USDA officials including Floyd Gaibler, Acting Under Secretary of Agriculture and Eldon Gould, Administrator of RMA plus several Texas and Oklahoma congressmen.

Later in September Eldon Gould personally presented a request for a sesame insurance pilot program to the Board of Directors of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. They felt sesame acreage is too small and denied the request.

Fortunately, after numerous visits to the congressional delegations from Texas and Oklahoma, ASGA is now well known by the appropriate congressional staffs. With their support, our message is being understood - that farmers, bankers and landlords require crop insurance and our acreage will not grow without it. At their invitation, our president, Steven Chapman, was invited to testify personally before the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management of the House Committee on Agriculture on May 14, 2007, on Capital Hill. Board members Erick Richards and Ray Langham as well as Julian Heron, Dave Juday, Glenn Smith and I accompanied him.

Steve's testimony can be found on our website under Crop Insurance.

In July, working with congressional staffs, provisions were written in the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill requiring USDA to provide a pilot insurance program for sesame. These can be found in H.R. 2419, Section 11007, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, July 27.

In this legislative effort we very much appreciate the support and assistance from the Texas Congressional Delegation and their staffs. In particular, Representatives Michael Conaway and Randy Neugebauer with the support of Representatives Henry Cuellar, Mac Thornberry, Ciro Rodriguez, Ralph Hall and Nick Lampson.

We also very much appreciate the support of Subcommittee Chairman Representative Bob Etheridge (D-NC) and Ranking Minority Member Representative Jerry Moran (R-KS) as well as committee member Representative Charles Boustany (R-LA) and members of the House Agriculture Committee staff, particularly Clarke Ogilvie of the Majority Staff and Bryan Dierlam of the Minority Staff.

Go to http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/Legislation/110/FB/TitleXI.pdf, then to Section 11007 on page 19, line 13.

This has been a major effort and accomplishment by Julian and Dave for which we all are very appreciative.

We are off to a good start but now need the Senate to include similar provisions in their version of the Farm Bill. Then we need to continue in the conference version that will be signed into law by the President. If any of you have a personal relationship with one or both of your senators, please call one of the Board members to see how you can help our effort.

Sesaco Corporation is covering the cost of the legal retainer and most of the costs of these visits, for which we are also very appreciative.

Herbicide Research. Our second major effort this year has been to support research to identify herbicides that can be used for sesame. We are working with researchers from Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, Texas Tech University, and Oklahoma State University.

Good progress has been made in identifying herbicides for preemergence application, directed postemergence spraying, and harvest aids to accelerate drydown. There are also a few leads on postemergence herbicides that can be sprayed over the top, but additional testing needs to be done. We hope to be able to receive Section 18 approval for several herbicides for 2008. We did a review of all the available research from 21 countries on preemergence and postemergence herbicides in order to stimulate additional research. These papers are in review and will be posted on our website. We have also done a summary of the research which is in the process of being posted on the website.

Our efforts will continue to focus on the Farm Bill, crop insurance and herbicide trials.

The 2008 Crop. Despite the recent rains we estimate that this year's crop will be approximately 10,000 acres. There are plantings in Oklahoma, the High Plains, Rolling Plains, Wintergarden and South Texas.

There are now ten locations in Texas and Oklahoma where you can secure planting seed and a growing contract and seven locations that are currently ready to receive sesame. More receiving locations will be added before the harvest. The moisture profile is full in most areas so this should be a good year.

Website. ASGA now has an extensive and up to date website. Please visit us at www.sesamegrowers.org. There is considerable information, including sesame production, markets, congressional testimonies, links to other relevant sites and organizational matters.

Per the suggestion of some of our Board members, the website is going to add a section where farmers can provide solutions they have developed to solve problems they have encountered. For example, there are many new planters and combines entering the market, and each one requires a bit of tweaking for sesame. Think about contributions you would like to make to the rest of the sesame community. We are also always looking for more pictures of sesame.

Markets. The major reason that our industrial members have joined this organization is that they are very interested in increasing the amount of "US grown sesame." You are all very aware of the problems with dog food from China, and our industrial members have food safety as their number one concern every day they come to work. They support efforts to increase their US supply and reduce their dependence on sesame imports. The Uvalde County Coop is the largest receiver of sesame in the US, and they have implemented the Department of Homeland Security guidelines where they track all of the sesame from the farm to the combiner to the trucker to their facility to the buyer.

Farmers are always concerned that they will overproduce on a new crop and that prices will fall. The demand for sesame continues to increase every year. The world's traded sesame seed recently surpassed one million tons per year and continues to increase every year. China has moved from being the major sesame exporter to the major importer. The present largest exporter is India, and there are those that predict that in the future, India will be a net importer. The market outlook for "US grown sesame" is excellent.

Administration. On administrative matters, we have applied for and received non-profit status from both the Internal Revenue Service and Texas Comptroller. We are registered to have an office in Texas and an office in Maryland for our efforts in Washington D.C. We have also registered our trademark, which is the ASGA logo and the phrase, "US Grown Sesame" as shown on the first page.

At their last meeting, the Board approved the 2006 financial statements, this report, the first half 2007 financial statements and the 2007 budget.

Since none of the officers or directors' terms expire after this first year, the Board approved not holding an annual meeting unless requested by the members. Rader Gilleland needed to resign his Board position and per the bylaws, the Board will appoint Danny Peepers to finish the remainder of his term. Officers and directors are Stephen Chapman, President, Billy Schwartz, Vice President, Ray Langham, Secretary Treasurer, plus Eric Richards and Danny Peepers.

Your comments, suggestions and questions are always welcome. Please direct them to either of our two offices or members of the Board. All addresses are on our website.

Respectfully submitted,

Fritz Schwarz
Executive Director