Picture from Adam Bertolla/Shows pecans and limbs on the ground, knocked over by Hurricane Sally.
Two counties in Alabama known for pecan production had little to zero pecans harvested this year after being hit hard by Hurricane Sally.
Unfortunately, it is likely to have a ripple effect on pecan production in Baldwin and Mobile Counties for years to come, says Bryan Wilkins, Alabama Extension Research Associate.
Extension Testimonial
“This was the biggest crop some of them ever had but there was probably, in Baldwin and Mobile Counties, there was probably 3.5 million pounds on a rough guess. Everything was loaded,” Wilkins said.
“We’re going to be in an alternate bearing year next year. You can figure that a lot of these trees got damaged, and the ones that didn’t get blown over, they’re going to have to have some pretty severe pruning on a lot of them. You’re probably looking at three or four years before Baldwin County is back to doing anything terribly, terribly significant.”
The Category 2 storm hammered Alabama pecan producers like Gary Underwood on Sept. 16. Underwood, who is based between Mobile, Ala. and Pensacola, Fla., lost a substantial amount of his pecan crop, as he estimated he lost 600 trees.
Loss to This Year’s Crop
Wilkins said Baldwin County experienced a complete loss of its pecan crop this year. Mobile County experienced a 50% to 60% loss in its crop.
However, the more pressing concern right now is cleaning up all of the debris left behind.
Lot to Clean Up
“We’re going to be cleaning up on into the new year. They’re slowly making some progress but the trees, a lot of them weren’t completely broke off at the roots. They were still attached, just blown over. Those trees haven’t started drying out yet,” Wilkins said.
“They’re still green for the most part. Even once they get them up, they’re not going to be able to just start burning. They’re going to have to let them dry some. The time you get everything burnt and cleaned up and limb raked and picked up and holes filled in, it’s going to be doggone close to spring, bloom time.”
According to the USDA Pecan Report, growers are about 90% finished with harvesting their pecan crop this season. An estimated 50% have been sold, with the rest that are of good quality and size will be stored to sell later when prices have improved.
The Pecan Report states, “Prices are about steady, and interest has increased as the push for holiday retail and domestic sales has come into play.”
Not Much Change in Prices
The updated prices are consistent with what Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension pecan specialist, said they were last week.
“What I’ve been hearing, they’ve been fairly stable for the last two or three weeks. Good nuts have been selling in the range of a $1.15 to $1.35 (per pound), mostly, somewhere in that range. It doesn’t really matter what variety it is or anything. If it’s a decent nut, it’s selling in that range. Of course, the poor-quality stuff is well below $1,” Wells said.
Prices paid to Georgia growers as of Tuesday, Dec. 8 at buyers delivery point or F.O.B. the orchard including direct sales to end users, cents per pound in-shell of generally good quality in lots of 20,000 pounds or less unless otherwise stated:
Georgia has experienced freezing temperatures throughout the state with wind chill factors in the teens. The rest of the week is forecasted for temperatures in the 30s-to-mid-40s with daytime temps in the low 50s-to-high 60s.
Pecan prices have been depressingly low all harvest season. But they have not dropped much more in the last month or so, according to Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension pecan specialist.
“What I’ve been hearing, they’ve been fairly stable for the last two or three weeks. Good nuts have been selling in the range of a $1.15 to $1.35 (per pound), mostly, somewhere in that range. It doesn’t really matter what variety it is or anything. If it’s a decent nut, it’s selling in that range. Of course, the poor-quality stuff is well below $1,” Wells said.
Low pecan prices were expected but not to the extreme levels that growers have experienced this year. While prices have not been good this year, pecan volume is the highest Georgia producers have seen in years.
Wells estimates there will be between 120 million and 125 million pounds of pecans produced this year.
This year’s pecan crop in Georgia exceeded expectations. Producers need to brace themselves for a drop in volume next year, which is expected with pecan trees being alternate bearing plants.
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension pecan specialist Lenny Wells fully expects the 2021 crop season to be a down year for Georgia growers.
“From a volume perspective yes, I don’t really see how we can come back with this kind of crop statewide,” Wells said. “Now with the young trees that are out there, they’ll probably still come back with a decent crop. Anybody that fruit thins or manages their crop load will probably have a decent crop. Overall, I would expect next year to be an off year.”
Alternate Bearing Cycle
Since pecan trees are alternate bearing, if the trees produce a good crop one year, they are less likely to produce a similar result the following year. However, with the right management system, producers can still get the most out of their trees.
“We had kind of leveled off to where before the hurricane we had gotten to be pretty even in our production. We would be up and down a little, but we didn’t have those big swings like we used to have. But the hurricane (Michael) kind of reset everything,” Wells said.
“When you had all those trees that got broken up and they had to regrow new fruiting wood and all that, it reset the clock and sent everything back into a big alternate bearing cycle. Any growers that did not manage their crop load, those trees are going to be back into a big swing. There’s things they can do to manage that. A lot of them didn’t want to this year because it’s really been a couple of years since they’ve had a crop, which is understandable.”
Georgia Crop This Year
Wells estimates that this year’s Georgia pecan crop will net between 120 million and 125 million pounds.
According to UGA Extension, Georgia is the country’s largest supplier of pecans, accounting for about a third of the U.S. pecan production.
The worst pecan prices in recent memory are being countered by one of the biggest crops in recent years.
Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension pecan specialist, said this year’s crop has been welcomed by all producers, especially those still recovering from Hurricane Michael in 2018.
Photo by Clint Thompson/Shows pecans being cleaned after harvest.
“I think it has (exceeded expectations) from a volume standpoint. It’s hard to say exactly how much it’s going to be but I’m still going to say around 120 million or 125 million pounds which is more than we expected in the middle of the summer,” Wells said. “It does look like a pretty big crop. That has been the saving grace in all this. With the price being down so much, the volume has certainly helped a lot of growers with that.”
Improved Production Season
Wells was hoping for between 80 million and 100 million pounds, back in early April. That would have been a substantial increase from 2019 crop that generated just 67 million pounds. But last year’s crop came on the heels of Hurricane Michael the prior year. A down year was expected.
Low Prices
A larger than expected crop is needed to combat extremely low prices that have forced some growers to store their pecans. The farmers are hoping for a market turnaround in doing so.
“Pretty much every big grower that I have talked to is storing a considerable amount. Most large growers I think seem to be storing maybe somewhere around a third of their crop, at least. It’s quite a bit,” Wells said.
It is getting late in the pecan harvest season. Prices remain low for farmers across the Southeast.
According to the USDA Pecan Report, some producers are storing pecans they would normally export in hopes of getting a better price after the new year. Farmers and homeowners who are trying to sell now are still encountering decreased prices.
Photo by Clint Thompson/Shows pecans being cleaned after harvested.
“Export and retail gift quality pecans are still being pursued by buyers for holiday sales, but the Asian markets have not been wide open as in past years. Growers are hoping for a change in that area soon,” according to the press release.
Growers are busy finishing up going over the orchards for a second or third time if needed. They are taking samples and having them graded for sale.
Prices for Georgia Pecans
Prices paid to Georgia growers (late afternoon Tuesday, November 24, 2020 through late afternoon Tuesday, December 1, 2020). These were at buyers delivery point or F.O.B.; also, the orchard including direct sales to end users, cents per pound in-shell of generally good quality. These prices are for lots of 20,000 pounds or less unless otherwise stated.
Cape Fear (deliveries light) meat yield 49-52% 113-136
Curtiss (deliveries insufficient to establish market)
Desirables (deliveries light) meat yield 48-52% 113-136,yard tree lots 80-100
Elliott (deliveries very light) yard tree lots 90-100
Farley (deliveries very light) yard tree lots70-80
Moneymakers (deliveries very light) yard tree lots 40
Native/Seedlings (deliveries light) yard tree lots 40-50 occasional lower
Schley (deliverieslight) yard tree lots 70-85
Stuarts (deliveries light) meat yield 46-52% 104-125, yard tree lots 50-75 mostly 70-75 few high as 90
Sumner (deliverieslight) meat yield 51-53% 118-138, yard tree lots 70-80
Hurricane Sally’s impact on Alabama pecan producers is still being felt more than two months later. Unfortunately, it will last much longer as growers like Gary Underwood ponder the future of the industry in the state.
Underwood, who is based between Mobile, Ala. and Pensacola, Fla., was hammered by the Category 2 storm on Sept. 16. He lost a substantial amount of his pecan operation.
“I’d say it was about like what (Hurricane) Michael did three years ago. Hurricane Ivan was a Cat 4. This did more damage than Ivan. I lost 440 trees in Ivan with the same acres, and this one I lost, probably 600,” said Underwood, who has two orchards in Summerdale, Alabama and one in Foley, Alabama.
To Replant or Not To Replant
Underwood has even questioned whether he will replant in certain orchards that were nearly devastated. Some of his land is too valuable to plant pecan trees, a crop that could take another 8 to 10 years before he sees a harvest again.
“I’ll be 60-years-old in December. The only reason I’m going to replant one orchard is because that’s where I live. If my wife and I decide to sell out later on in life, someone would have a complete orchard,” Underwood said. “The other two places are really too valuable to farm. Right across the corner of my dad’s property here they sold a Dollar General. They paid $400,000 for like an acre and a half. This is on U.S. 98 which runs from one coast to another.”
What is especially disappointing for Underwood and other farmers is the caliber of the pecan crop they were going to have this year.
“It was the biggest crop we’ve had in years. I had the best crop I ever had,” Underwood said. “We got some of that new Miravis Top chemistry out, used it twice and even Desirables were as clean as they could be.”
It was a quality crop reduced to almost nothing with one hurricane. Underwood tries to remain positive as he moves forward during this harvest season.
“It was supposed to be a weak Category 1, if it remained a 1 and it was almost a 3 with 30 inches of rain which made it catastrophic. It blew up instead of falling apart,” Underwood said. “It doesn’t matter if they missed the prediction or what. The storm was what it was. That’s just life. You just live with it.”
University of Georgia CAES photo/Shows pecans being cleaned.
By Allison Fortner for CAES News
The international popularity of pecans is trending upward, but more reliable measures for guaranteeing quality during storage are needed to meet demand in Georgia, the top state for pecan production.
A review conducted by University of Georgia researchers identified scientific principles behind postharvest storage and handling techniques for pecans and revealed the need for a mathematical model to help producers predict quality under various conditions. This research will help U.S. pecan producers improve quality and increase shelf life.
In a recently published article in the journal Food Reviews International, researchers explored the science behind three indicators for optimal pecan quality: color, texture and lipid profile. The study was led by associate professor Fanbin Kong, the principal investigator on the project, and doctoral candidates Himanshu Prabhakar and Shruti Sharma in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ Department of Food Science and Technology.
“Georgia is the nation’s leading pecan-producing state. In recent years, Georgia-grown pecans have seen a rapid increase in sales in the international market, and a big portion of Georgia pecans are exported to other countries. The quality can deteriorate significantly during the long-term transportation and storage,” said Kong, who initially identified the need for in-depth research on postharvest pecan quality.
This review of current handling and storage practices is part of a larger research project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant program. The ultimate goal of the three-year project is to identify how factors such as relative humidity, temperature, packaging and processing influence quality changes and shelf life of pecans. The end product will be a mathematical model for determining pecan quality based on a variety of storage conditions.
Research Findings
Both Prabhakar and Sharma contributed to the journal review to identify factors that could adversely affect pecan quality and specify areas where research is lacking in relation to color, texture and lipid profile.
In the pecan industry, the quality and resulting price of pecans is most often assessed by color. However, texture and lipid profiles are important physical and chemical attributes that contribute to the consumer experience. The lipids give pecans their flavor profile and distinct aroma, while the texture indicates freshness and contributes to the consumer’s sensory experience.
“Understanding how one aspect of pecan leads to and relates to the other is quite an invigorating process as a food scientist because the pecan has its own unique chemistry, given the fact that it’s a plant food,” said Sharma.
Although pecan quality research has been conducted in the past, many of the findings are not useful in the Georgia pecan industry. For example, Prabhakar said that many existing storage studies kept pecans around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but Georgia temperatures can range from below freezing to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in storage facilities.
“They gave out the best conditions to preserve most of the pecan quality attributes in storage, but what they lacked was the actual scenario that pecan growers and distributors face,” said Prabhakar.
The review also found that other nuts have been more heavily researched in the past. Prakhabar said that although pecans are technically fruits, they compete in the same market as nuts.
“Given the fact that the researchers have done a lot of work in nuts in terms of storage and developing complex models to predict their changes in storage, it’s time that we should do that for pecan as well,” Prabhakar said.
Mathematical Model for the Industry
Based on the review findings, Kong and Prabhakar are developing a mathematical model by studying pecans under a variety of storage and handling conditions.
“We are developing a computational predictive model that can estimate the shelf life from different conditions (moisture, humidity, temperature, packaging methods, conditioning, etc.),” Kong said. “The model will be free for use by Georgia pecan growers and processors.”
Prabhakar explained that producers will not need to work with the complex equations the researchers are developing. Instead, a website will be created for producers to input factors such as temperature, relative humidity and pecan variety to receive information about the changes in quality that will occur over time. This will help pecan growers prepare accordingly, whether investing in different storage technology or adjusting sales timelines.
This model aims to help Georgia-grown pecans stay competitive and increase profitability in the growing global market. Consumers, both domestically and internationally, are recognizing pecans for their health benefits, which include vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. Millennials and Generation Z are also incorporating more nuts into their diets as they adopt plant-based food products.
“Given the fact that the popularity of plant-based foods is on the rise, research should be focused on understanding the chemistry of pecans and ways to advertise their health benefits in the international market,” said Sharma. “The future of this study depends on how effectively it will be communicated to the right audience at the right time to seek their feedback to incorporate the improvements.”
Kong, Prabhakar and Sharma hope their research will help Georgia’s pecan producers and help market pecans to new consumers.
“Food scientists are also developing novel products from pecans such as pecan butter. The increasing demand for pecans presents a great opportunity for the Georgia pecan industry. An improved postharvest handling and storage method will further enhance the competitiveness of Georgia-grown pecans,” Kong said.
For more information on the UGA Department of Food Science and Technology, visit foodscience.caes.uga.edu.
One of the largest pecan producers in the Southeast believes the industry could be on the verge of collapse amid tariffs, a strong hurricane season and devastatingly low prices this year.
Eric Cohen, who along with brother, Rob, operates Pecan Ridge Plantation in Bainbridge, Georgia, said they are still recovering from Hurricane Michael’s impact in 2018. It wiped out 800 acres and more than 20,000 trees. What he’s concerned with the most now are tariffs that prevent the largest buyer of U.S. pecans, China, from buying this year. It’s also allowed Mexico to become an even bigger player on the world’s pecan stage than it was before.
A Pecan Producer’s Comments
“I think our industry, honestly, is on the brink of collapse if something doesn’t actually change,” Cohen said. “We’ve got all these pecans coming in from Mexico. The tariff situation is absolutely killing us because they don’t have a tariff on their pecans. China can buy all of their pecans from them.
“Mexico, their labor is so much different than ours. We’re getting drilled on everything; labor, their inputs are so much cheaper. We just can’t grow them as cheap as they can, and they’re just flooding our market. It’s an extremely dark time in the pecan industry in Georgia after Hurricane Michael. Now we have extremely low prices.”
Low Prices Continue
The USDA Pecan Report was released on Tuesday and continues to show prices dropping for all pecan varieties.
The report states, “Growers are still putting pecans into cold storage while prices for export quality and retail gift shop purchases are low as many are purchasing pecans from other sources. Domestic shellers are busy this week and growers are sending in their B grade pecans to make room for their better quality nuts to be stored. Talk of export buyers coming in as they have in the past is still ongoing but they are not as active as was expected.”
Prices for Desirable varieties remain between $0.80 and $1 per pound, while Sumner varieties are selling between $0.70 and $0.80 cents per pound. It’s depressing news as growers are storing pecans in hopes of prices rebounding in the future.
“I never dreamed it would be this bad,” Cohen said. “If China would buy. If they would just come in the market and take some of this off, they would create some competition. China being out of our market is what’s going on.
“If we could get the tariff situation settled, whatever administration is in there that would be an absolute benefit to growers. I firmly believe that China wants to buy American Georgia pecans. The economics are just not there the way they are now.”
Alabama Farmers Suffer Through Storms
While Georgia producers have dodged storms this season, their Alabama counterparts were not so lucky. Alabama producer Adam Bertolla lost three-quarters of this year’s crop and 250 trees, or one-third of his pecan operation after Hurricane Sally struck in mid-September.
“We’re losing money. Growers out here, we’re absolutely losing money on the farm this year. You’ve got to make up your mind, ‘Are you willing to hang on and stick it out?’ If we were Louisiana, I know Alabama got destroyed this year. But look at Louisiana, I think they’ve had five storms. You take those five storms and run them through Georgia, we’re done.”
Photo by Clint Thompson/Shows pecans being cleaned after harvest.
A popular option that Georgia pecan producers are utilizing to combat low prices is to put them in storage in hopes of improved prices in the future.
However, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension pecan specialist Lenny Wells cautions growers who take this approach.
“That’s most of what I hear taking place. I haven’t heard a lot (of pecans) over the last (couple of weeks) being sold at the offers they were getting. There was a little here and there but not much. The issue that I see with that is I see no sign of things getting better, even holding it,” Wells said. “If they hold it there’s a risk of having this problem continue on into next year when we’re likely to have as much as we have now.”
Decreased Prices
South Georgia farmer Randy Hudson said prices are anywhere from 30% to 50% less than what they’ve seen the last three years. Prices are the lowest they’ve been in the last 20 years, while expenses remain high.
The depressed market also comes amid a bumper crop across the Southeast. Instead of giving in to low prices, buyers are taking the wait-and-see approach.
“Putting them into cold storage and holding them has always been the thing growers will do when prices have bottomed out like this, but back when that worked, we didn’t have to worry about Mexico’s production. We didn’t have to worry about South Africa’s crop coming off in May and June,” Wells said. “There’s a very narrow window there that you’re just hoping that the demand for pecans goes up during that time.
“I don’t know when to expect the price to get any better.”
