{"id":884893,"date":"2026-10-16T23:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884893\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T23:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:36:28","slug":"uh-manoa-clemson-to-lead-new-innovation-lab-for-coffee-and-cacao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/884893\/","title":{"rendered":"UH M\u0101noa, Clemson, to lead new Innovation Lab for Coffee and Cacao"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading time: 2 minutes\"coffee(Photo credit: CTAHR)<\/p>\n

The University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa will host and lead the new Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Coffee and Cacao<\/a> (CCIL), a United States (U.S.) Department of State (DOS) program designed to safeguard supply chains and boost local and global production. Clemson University in South Carolina will co-lead the program.<\/p>\n

The award is for up to five years, with an initial obligation of $8 million for the first year funded through an agreement with the DOS.<\/p>\n

\"person(Photo credit: CTAHR)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Innovation Lab is designed to transform coffee and cacao science into practical benefits for small farmers in Hawai\u02bbi, the continental U.S., and around the world,\u201d said Parwinder Grewal, dean and director of the UH M\u0101noa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience<\/a> and principal investigator of the CCIL. \u201cHawai\u02bbi is a fitting living laboratory for this program as the only state in the nation that grows both coffee and cacao commercially. Innovations developed and tested here will support Hawai\u02bbi farmers and scale to protect our global supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Closing a major vulnerability in global supply chains<\/p>\n

Coffee and cacao are significant economic drivers\u2014coffee contributes $343.2 billion a year to the U.S. economy, supporting 2.2 million jobs, while chocolate generates $28.4 billion and supports 700,000 jobs. However, with over 99% of U.S. coffee and cacao imported from overseas, the supply chains are highly vulnerable to climate shocks, crop diseases and pests, and overseas trade disruptions.<\/p>\n

CCIL will develop heat-, disease-, and drought-resistant crop varieties to combat these threats and secure reliable global supplies. The program will also enhance post-harvest processing and farm management techniques for thousands of smallholder farmers in Hawai\u02bbi and internationally in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.<\/p>\n

\"coffee(Photo credit: CTAHR)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is great news for our small local coffee and cacao farms and showcases Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s global leadership in agricultural research. This new federal funding will give local farmers more tools to fight threats like drought and invasive pests and help boost production of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s world-class coffee and chocolate,\u201d said Sen. Brian Schatz, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n

Research across the coffee and cacao value chain<\/p>\n

A more resilient global supply, enabled by CCIL research, will strengthen U.S. security, economic, and trade interests while reinforcing America\u2019s leadership in coffee and cacao research and production.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy leveraging the U.S. land-grant system and working with a world-class group of research institutions and industry partners, the CCIL will connect innovative research to farms and supply chains. This will boost productivity and profitability for small farmers, improve processing technologies, and ensure quality products for U.S. consumers,\u201d said Congressional Coffee Caucus Co-Chairs Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda and U.S. Rep. William Timmons (South Carolina).<\/p>\n

\"cacao(Photo credit: Synergistic Hawai\u02bbi Agriculture Council)
\nInvesting in farmers and research<\/p>\n

\u201cCoffee and chocolate are two of the joys in life. I am excited for the benefits this funding brings to American growers and consumers.\u201d Suzanne Shriner, a coffee farmer and the Administrator for the Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council. \u201cEnsuring we can all continue to enjoy these foods means investing in the farmers, research, and practices that keep them thriving. This grant helps secure a strong future for cacao and coffee grown right here in the United States, from the farm to cup and bar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lab brings together major research and industry organizations, including Michigan State University; The Ohio State University; Penn State; the University of California, Davis; Coffee Quality Institute; Mars, Incorporated; PlantVillage+; Synergistic Hawai\u02bbi Agriculture Council; and World Coffee Research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading time: 2 minutes(Photo credit: CTAHR) The University of Hawai\u02bbi at M\u0101noa will host and lead the new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[2342,23,116962,371369,371361,36957,66547,371368,371365,104431,371362,371371,346589,371373,371360,371376,275647,371370,371358,371375,16047,196,779,3,36041,371357,58031,371366,371372,371374,371364,17050,21,19,22,20,286033,17049,25,371367,162034,24,371359,371363],"class_list":["post-884893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-agriculture","tag-america","tag-brian-schatz","tag-cacao-production","tag-ccil","tag-chocolate-industry","tag-clemson-university","tag-coffee-production","tag-coffee-quality-institute","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-congressional-coffee-caucus","tag-crop-disease-resistance","tag-drought-resistant-crops","tag-farm-management","tag-feed-the-future-innovation-lab-for-coffee-and-cacao","tag-global-food-security","tag-global-food-supply-chain","tag-hawaii-coffee-farms","tag-jill-tokuda","tag-land-grant-universities","tag-manoa-research","tag-mars","tag-michigan-state-university","tag-news","tag-ohio-state-university","tag-parwinder-grewal","tag-pennsylvania-state-university","tag-plantvillage","tag-post-harvest-processing","tag-smallholder-farmers","tag-synergistic-hawaii-agriculture-council","tag-uh-manoa","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-university-of-california-davis","tag-university-of-hawaii-at-manoa","tag-us","tag-us-agriculture-research","tag-us-department-of-state","tag-usa","tag-william-timmons","tag-world-coffee-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}