USDA Grant To Enhance UF/IFAS Vanilla Research, Promote Domestic Industry (UF News)

USDA Grant To Enhance UF/IFAS Vanilla Research, Promote Domestic Industry

A tropical fruit breeder with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is a step closer to establishing a domestic vanilla industry for growers in Florida, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

Alan Chambers in the shade house at UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center by one of the hundreds of vanilla varieties growing.

Alan Chambers, an assistant professor and plant geneticist at UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC) has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to foster a domestic vanilla production industry.

“A major component of this grant is to advance our work with growers, scientists, and residents,” said Chambers. “Vanilla has the potential to be among the highest-grossing agricultural commodities and could revitalize some of our distressed agricultural industry.”

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