The American Pecan Council meeting is currently in session at the Hyatt Regency at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. Today’s meeting started at 8:00 am (EST) and will last until after lunch today. The turnout has been quite good with 90% board members attending the meeting. The meeting kicked off with discussions of the duties of the board, and a brief FMO educational update, the APC did hand out the 2017 crop data. Weber Shandwick gave an update on progress of marketing American Pecans story, and shared success’s that have already been realized. While the APC has only officially met a handful of times since inception the meetings are quite productive. This is the first official meeting with newly appointed APC director Alexander Ott at the helm. Mr. Ott has extensive knowledge in the field having worked in other specialty agricultural crops. That being said, Mr. Ott does have his work cut out for him; with the ongoing trade war between the US and most of the developed world, pecans along with most other agricultural products have been the target of increased trade tariffs, that other countries are now using as leverage against the US. As if that wasn’t enough on his plate, Mr. Ott is now dealing with the recently tarnished reputation of the American Pecan Council due to allegations of fraud by one or more board members. Mr. Ott has assured us, and the pecan industry as a whole, that no fraud has taken place within the official actions of the APC but could not speak to the actions of individual board members. Mr. Ott did inform me that he takes the allegations of fraud very seriously and if any misconduct has taken place on the APC that it would be dealt with swiftly. On a more positive note the APC has released long awaited pecan data and beginning in October, will do so on a monthly basis. This pecan data will be a huge help for growers, shellers and handlers to understand how much pecan crop is actually being produced in the US and more importantly, how much of the pecan crop is actually available to be sold and what has already been committed. This was a big topic of discussion in this morning’s meeting and was very well received by all in attendance. We will keep you informed of any new data published and of course APC will be sending out regular updates to the pecan industry.