Specialty Crop Grants

Specialty Crop Grants. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Recently grants were announced for specialty crop projects in Washington State with many going to the fruit industry. Rianne Perry is the Specialty Crop Grant Administrator for the WSDA. PERRY: Last year we went out and asked industries for the priority for funding, what they felt was important for their industry and where they would like to see these grant funds used. One of the top priorities everyone came back with was pest and disease control, also food safety was another one, international marketing. One such grant was given to the Washington Apple Commission. PERRY: They're doing a project where they're not just benefitting the apple industry but also pears and cherries and potatoes and they're providing training to retailers in several countries; Russia, the Middle East, India, emerging markets. Helping them understand produce layout, handling because a lot of the produce was and they weren't laying it out properly. Each year groups in the state submit projects or bids for a part of the grant money. PERRY: USDA provides the money and each state gets some money but it's based on production value so we get the third largest amount in the nation and then each state can decide how they want to give out the money. Some states actually keep it within their department of agriculture and do their own projects. Some states give it to associations in non-competitive way and we've decided to do it in a competitive way. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.