By Clint Thompson
Fruit and vegetable farmers have mostly concluded their summer harvests and are now preparing for the upcoming fall season.
Chris Butts, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (GFVGA), highlighted the challenges associated with spring production and what growers experienced this summer’s harvests.
“I think it kind of depends on who you ask. In the vegetable sector, there were certainly a lot of pricing pressures; good volume and good yields in the Southeast. We had a lot of rain in the Northeast for a lot of weekends, and it certainly impacted some of our watermelons and our other crops that are shipped up into those areas,” Butts said.
“Everybody regrouped over the July 4 holiday, and they are now in the fall mode. We’re getting ready for plastic to be laid and everybody getting ready to plant those fall vegetables.”
Alabama Point of View
Blake Thaxton, executive director of the Alabama Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, also provided insight into Alabama’s production season.
“From our guys I’ve heard positive results. We did get a lot of rain in North Alabama. I’m sure that affected some of our fruit and vegetable crops,” Thaxton said. “We’re very pleased with what we’ve seen from the peach crop. Seems like the melon prices have been down a little bit, but the crop looked good. There may be some overplanting in that situation as well.
“Things are looking up. I guess it’s the first time in a while we’ve had back-to-back good years on peaches and other fruit crops. We’re excited about that and looking forward to going into a good fall season as well.”