Department Of Agriculture & Consumer Services Florida

Department Of Agriculture & Consumer Services Florida, a U.S. state government entity and child division of the State of Florida, operates as a federal grant recipient delivering agricultural inspection, disease surveillance, food safety, forestry management, and emergency food assistance services to multiple USDA agencies, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Interior, and the Department of Energy. The agency holds a single-award $20 million indefinite delivery contract with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services running through November 2026 and functions primarily as a grant recipient (96% of recent awards) rather than a contract bidder, with no set-aside designations across its federal footprint.

Department Of Agriculture & Consumer Services Florida's recent award activity centers on cooperative agreements and formula grants from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Food and Nutrition Service, Forest Service, and Agricultural Marketing Service, along with project grants from the FDA, Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Energy, and NOAA. Concrete capability work includes animal disease diagnostic testing—antimicrobial resistance and whole-genome sequencing, classical and African swine fever diagnosis, highly pathogenic avian influenza surveillance, polymerase chain reaction testing, and foreign animal disease diagnostics—performed at laboratories in Tallahassee, Florida and Ames, Iowa under the $20 million APHIS Veterinary Services IDC. Food safety inspection work includes human food and animal feed regulatory inspections for the FDA (definitive contracts of $268 thousand for human food inspections, September 2026, and $125 thousand for animal food inspection, July 2026, both through December 2031). Grant work encompasses exotic pest surveillance and detection programs under the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey, citrus health and budwood registration management, fruit fly detection and monitoring across 83,588 routine traps, invasive mollusk and fire ant detection and regulatory oversight, plant protection and quarantine initiatives, and biological control research for invasive species including air potato, cactus moth, and yellow-legged hornet. Forestry grants support hazardous fuel reduction, forest health protection, wildfire suppression capacity building, and post-hurricane recovery on non-federal lands. Child nutrition programs administered include the National School Lunch Program ($986.3 million formula grant, October 2025), Emergency Food Assistance Program ($5.9 million, October 2025), fresh fruit and vegetable distribution ($10.5 million, October 2025), and WIC administration.

Customer concentration is dominated by USDA sub-agencies. The Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (both Marketing and Regulatory Programs Business Services and Veterinary Services divisions combined) accounts for approximately 68% of recent awards by count, with 448 awards carrying $20.6 million and $20.3 million in respective combined potential value across diagnostic testing, pest survey, citrus health, and food safety initiatives. The Food and Nutrition Service delivers formula grants for school meal programs and emergency food assistance, collectively 178 awards. The Forest Service Region 8 (Southern Region) issued 88 project grants for forest health, wildfire assistance, and cooperative forestry assistance averaging $36 thousand each. The FDA accounts for 21 awards ($9.8 million combined potential value) for food safety inspections and laboratory testing capacity. The Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 4 issued 19 awards for endangered plant species conservation.

Recent prime contract activity is minimal—the IDC with USDA APHIS Veterinary Services carries a $20 million ceiling and has generated 29 task orders with $1.4 million combined potential value for animal disease diagnostic testing. Delivery orders issued in the past year include a $1,680 order from Veterinary Services for antimicrobial resistance and whole-genome sequencing testing (October 2026), a $60,000 order for highly pathogenic avian influenza cattle emerging event diagnostics (August 2026), and a $1,100 order for African swine fever and classical swine fever testing (April 2026). Grant recompete exposure in the next twenty-four months totals approximately $1.8 million across fifty awards—predominantly cooperative agreements with APHIS for pest surveys, citrus health programs, biological control research, and animal health surveillance, along with Forest Service project grants for wildfire assistance and forest management.

The agency operates as a sub-recipient of the State of Florida Division of Emergency Management on federal disaster assistance and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program awards for emergency protective measures, debris removal, and facilities recovery related to recent hurricanes. Performance data shows 1,148 total awards (1,102 prime, 46 sub) since 2004, with activity averaging 61-73 awards per year over the past five years. Combined obligated dollars across all awards total $20.97 billion against $52.9 million in combined potential value—a reflection of the massive scale of formula grants (National School Lunch Program alone obligated $986 million in October 2025 for a single fiscal year). Top NAICS categories are Veterinary Services (41 awards), Administration of Public Health Programs (20 awards), and Forest Nurseries and Gathering of Forest Products (9 awards). The agency's award footprint reflects its statutory mission as Florida's primary state administrator for federal agricultural, food safety, forestry, wildlife conservation, emergency management, and child nutrition programs, with direct service delivery and laboratory diagnostics as core capabilities.