Nominations for members of the Board shall be made in the following manner:

The Secretary shall solicit nominations for producer representation on the Board from all eligible organizations. For nominations of producers, if the Secretary determines that a substantial number of producers are not members of, or their interests are not represented by, such eligible organizations, the Secretary shall also solicit nominations from such producers through general farmer organizations or by other means.

After the appointment of the initial Board, the Secretary shall announce at least 120 days in advance when a Board member's term is expiring and shall solicit nominations for that position in the manner described in paragraph (a) of this section. Nominations for such position should be submitted to the Secretary not less than 60 days prior to the expiration of such term.

An eligible producer organization may submit nominations only for positions on the Board that represent regions in which such eligible organization can establish that it represents a substantial number of producers. If there is more than one Board position for any such region, the organization may submit nominations for each position.

Where there is more than one eligible organization representing producers in a specific geographic region, the organizations may caucus and jointly nominate producers for each position representing that region on the Board for which a member is to be appointed. If joint agreement is not reached with respect to any such nominations, or if no caucus is held, each eligible organization may submit to the Secretary nominations for each appointment to be made to represent that region.

Nominations for representation of importers may be submitted by:

Organizations that represent importers of dairy products, as approved by the Secretary. The primary considerations in determining if organizations adequately represent importers of dairy products shall be whether its membership consists primarily of importers of dairy products and whether a substantial interest of the organization is in the importation of dairy products and the promotion of the nutritional attributes of dairy products; and

Individual importers of dairy products. Individual importers submitting nominations to represent importers on the Board must establish to the satisfaction of the Secretary that the persons submitting the nominations are importers of dairy products.