There is hereby levied and imposed upon any sale, delivery, or use of asparagus produced within the State and sold for processing within the State an excise tax at the rate of $0.002 for each pound of pay weight of which $0.001 shall be deducted from payment to growers and $0.001 shall be paid by the processor or distributor, whichever pays the grower for the asparagus. Any asparagus sold to a processor by a distributor or grower-distributor shall have the distributor’s share of the excise tax added to the invoice at the rate of $0.001 per pound of pay weight. The grower-distributor or distributor who sells, ships or hauls asparagus to out-of-State processing plants shall pay or deduct the growers’ share of the tax at the rate of $0.001 per pound of pay weight sold.

There is hereby levied and imposed upon any sale, delivery or use of asparagus produced within this State for fresh market an excise tax at the rate of $0.02 for each standard crate of asparagus or its equivalent which shall be deducted from the payments to the growers by the farmers market or the distributor who buys from the grower. The grower-distributor who sells, ships or hauls directly to out-of-State markets shall be liable for the tax of $0.02 for each standard crate or its equivalent by weight.

A farmers market shall deduct and collect from the amount paid to the growers selling the asparagus, the growers’ share of the tax as provided by this act.

Any grower or gardener who produces 3,000 pounds or less of asparagus annually shall be exempt from the levy imposed herein.

L.1959, c. 18, p. 87, s. 3.