(a) Commissioner means the Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets of the State of New York, or any officer or employee of the Department of Agriculture and Markets to whom authority may be delegated to act pursuant to section 17 of the Agriculture and Markets Law.

(b) Department means the Department of Agriculture and Markets of the State of New York.

(c) Person means any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, company, or unincorporated association.

(d) Apples means all apples produced in New York State for the purpose of sale.

(e) Grower means any person who produces or causes to be produced apples as herein defined.

(f) Processor means any person, firm, corporation, partnership, company, or unincorporated association which performs any of the functions or acts of processing as herein defined.

(g) Processing and process are synonymous terms and mean the operations of receiving, grading, packing, canning, freezing, dehydrating, preserving, grinding, crushing or in any other way preserving or changing the form of apples, as herein defined, for marketing in any form other than for fresh consumption.

(h) Storage means any building, structure, or place where apples are stored in cold, refrigerated or controlled atmosphere storage.

(i) Storage operator means any person who or which operates a cold, refrigerated or controlled atmosphere storage in which apples are stored.

(j) Bushel means a unit of 36 to 44 pounds of apples sold for fresh market use in boxes, cartons, baskets or other containers. When applied to bulk apples for fresh sales, a bushel shall mean 40 pounds of apples.

(k) Advisory board means the advisory board established pursuant to the provisions of subparagraph (9) of section 294 (art. 25) of the Agriculture and Markets Law and sections under heading “Apple Marketing Order Advisory Board” (§ 201.3 et seq.) of this order.

(l) Declaration of harvest crop means a statement, the form of which shall be prescribed by the commissioner, upon which the owner, lessee or other operator of an orchard shall declare the number of bushels or pounds of apples harvested and the disposition of same to processors and/or cold storage, and/or other sale or shipments as provided for in section 201.9 of this order.

(m) New York crop reporting service means the crop reporting service of the Bureau of Statistics of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

(n) Act means article 25 of the Agriculture and Markets Law of the State of New York.

(o) Marketing season means the period beginning July 1 of any year and extending through June 30 of the following year.

(p) District 1 shall mean the Champlain Valley District, consisting of the counties of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Saratoga, Warren and Washington.

(q) District 2 shall mean the Eastern Hudson Valley District, consisting of the counties of Bronx, Columbia, Dutchess, Kings, Nassau, New York, Putnam, Queens, Rensselaer, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester.

(r) District 3 shall mean the Western Hudson Valley District, consisting of the counties of Albany, Delaware, Greene, Montgomery, Orange, Otsego, Rockland, Schenectady, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster.

(s) District 4 shall mean the Central District, consisting of the counties of Broome, Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, St. Lawrence, Tompkins and Tioga.

(t) District 5 shall mean the Lake Country District, consisting of the counties of Chemung, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne and Yates, and all portions of the counties of Alleghany, Livingston and Monroe situated east of the Genesee River.

(u) District 6 shall mean the Niagara Frontier District, consisting of the counties of Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming, and those portions of the counties of Alleghany, Livingston and Monroe situated west of the Genesee River.

(v) Direct market sales means retail sale of a grower's own produced apples directly to a consumer.