Cliff Riner, a familiar face in the Vidalia onion industry, is the new crop production manager at G&R Farms. The Glennville, Georgia, farm grows 1,000 acres of onions and operates a storage, packing and shipping facility. Riner will be working to improve efficiency and explore various growing options to enhance the farm’s onion crop and strengthen the company’s commitment to quality.
Previously, Riner worked as the University of Georgia’s Vidalia onion area extension agent and coordinator of the Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Center.
He is known in the Vidalia onion industry for his research in the mechanization of onion planting, variety selection and evaluation, onion flavor and pest control. He also helped establish the University of Georgia’s Crop Quality Laboratory, which evaluates sweet onion pungency and provides research on sweet onion flavors through seed variety and soil analysis.
