This section sets up a dairy premium program for milk producers and requires processors using the program to follow labeling, pricing, reporting, and remittance rules.
I. The dairy premium program is established to provide payments to milk producers who ship milk in the state of New Hampshire regardless of the destination of such milk. II. Participation by milk processors in the dairy premium program is voluntary. III. All milk products sold as dairy premium program milk shall display the program logo adopted pursuant to rules adopted under RSA 184:108. IV. To participate in the program, milk processors shall label a portion of the milk produced for sale at retail establishments as dairy premium program milk with a label developed in accordance with rules adopted by the commissioner. V. Milk products labeled as "dairy premium program milk products" shall not be labeled with a price that exceeds the price of the same milk product which is not part of the dairy premium program by more than the premium established by the commissioner with a 2/3 majority vote of the dairy premium fund board. VI. Milk processors shall collect the premium from the net sales of dairy premium program milk and remit it to the department of agriculture, markets and food on the 15th of each month for deposit into the dairy premium fund established in RSA 184:109. VII. Within 30 days of the effective date of this section, all dairy cooperatives and/or bulk haul purchasers of milk in the state shall submit a list of eligible milk producers to the department and the records of their previous 12 months of production. The commissioner, in consultation with the New Hampshire milk products board, shall calculate a producer baseline for each milk producer by calculating the average milk production over the previous 12 months. If a milk producer did not produce milk in all 12 months prior to the effective date of this section, the baseline shall be the average milk production of the number of months the milk producer was in production. A milk producer shall be eligible to receive a dairy premium under paragraph VIII if he or she directs $0.10 from his or her federal promotion deduction to Granite State Dairy Promotion. VIII. The commissioner shall calculate the premium to be paid to eligible milk producers. The producers share shall be 86 percent of the dairy premium fund. The department shall use the remainder of the moneys in the dairy premium fund to promote the dairy premium program. The premium rate shall be the producers' share divided by the state baseline production. Each producer shall be paid their producer baseline production multiplied by the premium rate. IX. The baseline production shall also be adjusted when a milk producer leaves the market or 6 months after a milk producer enters the market, but not more than 2 times in a 12-month period. X. Any milk processor or private label may participate in the program as long as it certifies to the commissioner that either: (a) The final product contains no less than 85 percent New Hampshire produced milk or a higher percentage of New Hampshire produced milk as set in rule by the dairy premium fund board, in which case the product shall qualify for labeling as "New Hampshire's Own;" or (b) The final product contains 100 percent New England produced milk, in which case it shall qualify for labeling as "Supporting NH Dairy Farms." XI. Milk producers in New Hampshire who process milk products on site for direct sales to consumers may participate in the program. However, all milk products produced by such a milk producer shall be sold as dairy premium program milk. A milk producer who is also a milk processor who does not participate in the program shall have his or her base calculated only on the milk shipped through a commercial hauler. XII. A manufacturer of dairy products other than fluid milk may also use the dairy premium program logo if such manufacturer remits a portion of sales of such products to the dairy premium fund based on a formula agreed to by the commissioner and approved by the dairy premium board. Each product a manufacturer produces shall be certified as participating under subparagraph X(a) or (b). Source: Source. 2019, 319:1, eff. Aug. 7, 2019.