By Clint Thompson
More of Georgia’s pecan crop is being stored amid the low market prices growers are being offered this harvest season. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service, that may change after the first of the new year.
But for the time being, growers are choosing to store their pecans in hopes of prices increasing in the near future.
“I think they’re just not happy with where the prices are and a lot of them, especially with something like Desirable; if you’ve got good Desirables and end up getting offered $1.50, $1.55, $1.60 (per pound) for them right now, you’re losing money,” University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist Lenny Wells said.
Low prices have unfortunately been the focus of this year’s production season, which should continue into January.
“I think the bulk of it will be done by Christmas. There will be some harvested into January just because a lot of people just waited to harvest one time or harvest late so they could get as much as they could. They may end up scrapping over a little bit, but the end of December by the middle of January, I think it’ll mostly be up and gone,” Wells said.
What growers are pleased with is the quality of this year’s crop.
“For the most part the quality has been good. I haven’t seen a lot of problems. We were starting to see a little sprouting on Stuarts a while back, but those nuts have started opening up. The quality does not look bad from what I’ve seen,” Wells said.