Atlanta is not only Georgia’s capital and one of the Southeast’s largest cities, but is home to some of the finest and freshest produce in the country thanks to a full complement of wholesalers, packagers, distributors and retailers doing their part to keep the produce community strong.
“Georgia is such a fresh market state, there’s very little produce that’s processed, and when you couple that with the demand of Atlanta, it makes for a very healthy industry,” Gary W. Black, Georgia Department of Agriculture’s commissioner, said. “Local consumers want to buy local and I don’t think that’s a phenomenon in the marketplace, I think that’s here to stay.”
A lot of the buzz of the produce industry is rooted in the 150-acre Atlanta Farmers Market, which has some of the top produce companies working out of its Forrest Park location.
Andrew Scott, director of business development for the Nickey Gregory Co., which opened its doors in Atlanta at the start of the Millennium, said the company has expanded by 50,000 square feet at the market this year and plans to add on more in the year ahead.
“It’s a center hub in how many markets you can connect with in a 12-hour lead-time,” he said. “You can be in Miami, you can be in Pennsylvania, you can be in Ohio, almost in Michigan and you can get to Little Rock or Houston out west.”
The Atlanta Market is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and in addition to the numerous produce companies operating there, it also offers a restaurant, welcome center and USDA Federal-State office.
Many of the vendors at the Market have taken advantage of the state’s Georgia Grown program, a marketing and economic development effort that aids the state’s agricultural economies by bringing together producers, processors, suppliers, distributors, retailers, agritourism and consumers in one powerful, statewide community.
The Nickey Gregory Co. works diligently to take Georgia Grown product up and down the Southeast.
Mike Jardina, chief executive officer of J.J. Jardina Inc., which operates out of a 30,000-square-foot warehouse on the Atlanta Market, said the company has benefitted from a focus on locally grown fruit.
“Commissioner Black and the Georgia Grown program have done a great job creating a big demand for locally grown products,” he said. “We have some very good growers in Georgia that we are partnered with and demand just keeps on growing.”
In November, eight Georgia Grown products were named as finalists for Good Food Foundation’s 2019 Good Food Awards, which are awarded to food and beverage products from across 40 states.
“I believe Georgia Grown companies produce the most flavorful, accessible and highly-regarded food and drink products in the nation,” Black said. “It’s no surprise Georgia was well represented in this year’s group of finalists. We wish them the best in the final round of the competition- bring it on home.
One thing impacting the state’s produce industry now is that it is still feeling the impact of Hurricane Michael, which struck the heart of rural Georgia in early October.
Black noted that a lot of older farmers were hoping to retire soon and were looking for that one last good crop before handing their fields down to the next generation, but those plans devastatingly changed. To date, estimated losses from the storm range from $300 million to $800 million.
Another big challenge is the impact the NAFTA deal has had on growers and the industry overall.
Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, recently was part of a contingent that joined Commissioner Black in Washington, D.C., regarding NAFTA and the likely impact of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement if approved by Congress.
“Our goal for this trip was to make the offices aware of the financial crisis of our specialty crop growers,” he said. “We are very concerned that without significant Federal assistance, banks will deny farm loans for operations this spring and many growers will have to shut down.”
Black added that market windows continue to shrink for the state’s producers and based on the current level of Mexican fruit and vegetable imports and the potential for additional exponential unrestrained growth of Mexican imports, the new USMCA Agreement would be detrimental to many in rural Georgia and the Southeast.
