Strong peach crop expected out of South Carolina

With harvest starting the first week of May, South Carolina is poised to offer buyers a good crop of peaches in 2021.

That’s the perspective of Juan Carlos Melgar, associate professor of pomology at Clemson University and extension specialist for peaches.
“The main producing area, on the ridge, is looking really good,” Melgar said. “Finally, we’re going to have a normal year.”

The ridge growing region, between Augusta, Ga., and Lexington, S.C., accounts for about two-thirds of the state’s peach output, industry sources said.

There have been minor losses with late freezes in Greenville and Spartanburg counties, Melgar said, but the general outlook for the state is positive. 

Harvest had already begun for some growers, Melgar said.

Acreage of peaches in South Carolina was holding steady, and recently has been reported in the range of 15,000 to 16,000 acres.
One industry source, speaking on background, said that peach acreage has been stable because growers have been able to harvest a crop every year since 2007, when there was an Easter freeze that devastated the crop.

There are a handful of growers who each farm thousands of acres to meet the needs of big retailers, while small growers in the state have less than 100 acres; only five or six growers have acreage in the 500-600 range.

Acreage has been about the same in the past few years, though some orchards are going in with higher density plantings. Vertical integration for larger growers has increased, with packer-shipper-marketing responsibilities handled in-house.

Harvest of South Carolina peaches typically extends to about the first week of September, though earlier timing last year resulted in the end of the deal by late August.

“This year, it seems like more of a normal season based on when the bloom took place, in the middle of March,” Melgar said.

Last year, growers had H-2A workers delayed at the border because of COVID-19 disruptions to the program. 

“I have not heard anything like that this year,” he said.

On the other hand, some growers were still thinning their fruit sets in May. That is a task that is usually completed in April, so that appears to be a sign that labor is tight.

In general, however, Melgar said the second week of May that peach growers could not have asked for a better season so far.