HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Drew Echols knows change is coming. He can feel it in the air. And no, it's not the calendar change from August to September., from summer to fall. The general manager of Jaemor Farms, a northeast Georgia staple, said his heart went out to farmers in southeast Georgia right in the path of Hurricane Idalia.
"It's going to be tough for folks to bounce back," Echols said. "It's a network, a family, the industry is strong and I think we'll come out of it stronger and better than we were before. It's just tough to take it on the chin."
Georgia agriculture commissioner Tyler Harper said the storm affected 13,000 farms, businesses, livestock and poultry facilities. The state is currently assessing the damage done to the impacted area.
"Agriculture is our number one industry in this state," Harper said. "It impacts every Georgian every single day. The pecan crop in the state of Georgia, in this part of the state and the impact – I want to be clear, this is in the impact zone, took a significant hit during the storm. We're probably 50 to 60% loss of this year's pecan crop."
Harper said 25% of the pecan trees in the path of Idalia were destroyed in southeast Georgia. He added much of the tobacco and corn crop had been harvested, but the remainder left to be picked was likely not salvageable.
The storm also impacted poultry, dairy and swine. Fellow farmers and other state officials had been working in the last couple of days to get generators down to affected farmers to recoup what they could and keep operating. Governor Brian Kemp recently asked FEMA for assistance in the wake of Idalia.
Echols's farm is a few hundred miles from south Georgia, where Idalia's full brunt, force and impact were felt. But even farms in North Georgia are starting to feel those ripple effects, and so will consumers soon.
"Ultimately it's going to be higher prices probably for consumers," Echols said. "Sometime around the end of September, first of October you start seeing those Georgia pecans at markets like ours at Jaemor and then a lot of supermarkets. They’re just going to be higher this year.”
Sticker shock will likely be seen on popular products like peanuts, pecans, an already-lean peach crop, potatoes and tomatoes. Echols said pecans usually ebb and flow between heavy harvest years and lean harvest years. With many of the gains of an expected heavy crop year wiped out by Idalia, the pecan industry may take years to recover, Echols said.
"You’ve got those damaged trees, some of which will ultimately die," Echols said ."There’ll be a lot of replanting going on, just a long-term deal on the pecan industry I think everyone’s afraid to put a dollar figure on right now.”
Echols suggested consumers continue to bolster Georgia's agriculture industry by buying locally.
"Buy a Georgia-grown product," Echols said. "Make that extra effort. I know it seems we always circle back to 'buy local,' but in times like this right here, this is exactly what we need. It’s not just the guy going out and getting his hands dirty everyday. It’s whole entire communities, and we need to keep them in our thoughts and prayers. Then we need to have their backs in any way possible.”