The Texas Pecan Board, formed 1998, is one of the oldest pecan organizations still in existence today. The Texas Pecan Board (TPB) serves the interest of Texas pecan growers by collecting a ½ cent assessment for every pound of Texas pecans produced and uses that money to fund research as well as marketing campaigns geared toward the promotion of Texas pecans. The Texas Pecan Board consists of a nine member board and is a governmental agency of the state of Texas, with Mr. Larry Don Womack of De Leon currently serving as the boards president.

Over the past few months the board decided to officially hire a full time executive director to oversee assessments and daily operations as well as future programming and research for Texas pecans.  After careful consideration the Texas Pecan Board decided to offer Mr. Bob Whitney the position due to his vast experience in the pecan industry and his depth of knowledge in working with agriculture organizations.

Mr. Whitney accepted the offer on November 21, 2018 making him the first ever director for the Texas Pecan Board. Mr. Whitney says that he is excited to begin working with Texas pecan growers to develop better market information from before harvest to final prices paid throughout the season. Mr. Whitney says “ we plan to work cooperatively with the American Pecan Council in pecan promotion with [an] emphasis on Texas Pecans.” We also have plans to leverage dollars with research institutions and [the] USDA to conduct relevant pecan production and market research.”  Mr. Whitney acknowledges that he does have his work cut out for him in this current tumultuous market, “TPB has to become more relevant to the [pecan] industry and strengthen its assessment procedures. [The] TPB is the states recognized legal entity for pecans and we need to develop the legal tools that help growers in all aspects of production and marketing and we needed to start yesterday!”