Inclement winter and spring weather has led to only an estimated 10 percent of peach crops in Georgia surviving across the state, reports The New York Times.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Lanier Pearson, whose family grows peaches on about 1,400 acres in Fort Valley, Georgia, said. “We’ve never seen anything like this. Even my father-in-law, who is in his 70s and farmed his whole life, can’t remember a year this bad.”
Last week, the USDA granted federal relief to the state because of the decimated crops, declaring 18 counties national disaster areas and making an additional 38 counties eligible for federal loans. Jeff Cook, a University of Georgia cooperative extension coordinator, shared that the cost to the state could total $200 million.
Effected crops exceed state lines: orchards in South Carolina have also lost at least 75 percent of this year’s crops because of adverse weather conditions.
This has caused peach prices to soar, costing nearly double last year’s price. The short supply locally has caused grocery stores in the area to offer only peaches from California. Full Story
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