Solid crop of Georgia peaches are welcome sight after 2017

“We don’t have an overwhelming early crop of Georgia peaches but we do have a steady supply,” says Duke Lane III of Lane Southern Orchards in Fort Valley, GA, who notes the first picking of Georgia peaches happened on May 11th. “We expect to hit more of a normal crop volume about the 20th of June. And then we’ll be pretty steady through the summer.”

Lane notes that the season is off to a slightly earlier start than usual. “We had a bit of an early bloom in February and it brought harvest on earlier than normal,” he says. Despite the early start, the quality of the peaches looks strong. “The early fruit, the size and color are really good and early peaches have been eating well too,” he says.

Even with the more modest start to the season, it’s a welcome sight given last year’s damage to the crop thanks to weather. (After an early bloom, a March freeze significantly damaged the Southern peach crop). “It was the shortest crop we’d had in 50 years. So this year’s volume is significantly larger than last year’s volume,” notes Lane.

Meanwhile demand is solid and already underway into its run up to Memorial Day weekend. “Demand is a little bit higher than supply which is a good thing,” he says, adding that other primary regions growing peaches domestically are South Carolina and California.

That demand is largely influencing price as well. “Pricing is fair and we anticipate good demand all summer so we don’t anticipate a whole lot of fluctuations with price,” he says.

Looking ahead, supply should continue as is until freestone peaches come into supply the third week of June.