Board That Repays Unpaid Texas Produce Growers to Meet Oct. 6 with No Public Roster

The state board that decides whether Texas produce growers get their money when a buyer does not pay will meet Oct. 6 in San Antonio. Who sits on it is not something the state publishes.

The fund it oversees is a small safety net with a long history. A grower or dealer who sells Texas-grown produce on credit or consignment and never gets paid can file a claim against the state Produce Recovery Fund, which the Department of Agriculture administers. If the buyer held a state license, the claim can cover up to $50,000; if the buyer was operating without one, the fund pays 80 percent, to the same ceiling. Claims cost $50 to file and have to be brought within two years of the day payment came due. The board is the body that grants or denies them.

State law puts five members on that board, all appointed by the agriculture commissioner: two producers, one licensed dealer and two members of the general public, serving staggered six-year terms. The commissioner also names the chair, who serves at his pleasure. No list of the current members was found on the department’s website, in its meeting notices or in the governor’s appointment releases as of Sept. 29. The department does post a blank application form for people who want a seat. The notice says the chair will preside in person in San Antonio and the other members may join by videoconference, but it does not name any of them, and this article names none because none could be verified.

The agenda is short. Members take up minutes from April 7 — the board’s last posted meeting — hear a staff report on the fund, on pending claims and on an April 2 meeting with the Texas International Produce Association, and set a next meeting date. No individual claim is listed for decision, and no claimant is named.

The staff report is the part worth listening for. How many claims are waiting, and how much money is left in the fund to pay them, are not in the notice, and the board does not publish a balance between meetings.

Meeting at a glance

Board members

• Not published. Five seats: two producers, one licensed dealer, two public members.

No roster is printed here because none could be verified. The composition above is from Agriculture Code Chapter 103, which sets five seats appointed by the agriculture commissioner — two producers, one holder of a license under Chapter 101 and two members of the general public — on staggered six-year terms expiring January 31 of odd-numbered years, with the commissioner designating the chair to serve at his pleasure. Searches of texasagriculture.gov, the department’s posted notices and the governor’s appointment releases on September 29 turned up no membership list; note that these are commissioner appointments, not gubernatorial ones, so the governor’s releases would not be expected to carry them. The department’s site does host a board member application form, which suggests seats are filled by application to the department. The department’s own site listed Sid Miller as agriculture commissioner when checked September 29. Miller lost the March 3, 2026 Republican primary to Nate Sheets and is serving out a term that ends in January 2027; Sheets and Democrat Clayton Tucker are the November nominees. Because the commissioner appoints every member of this board and designates its chair at his pleasure, both the seats and the chairmanship are exposed to that change. Meeting contact: Austin (AJ) Ourada, (512) 936-2430.